Mudi - Diocesan Museum in Alba, Italy

The Mudi – Diocesan Museum was born in October 2012 as a result of an archaeological excavation campaign conducted between 2007 and 2012 to build a heating system under the floor of the Cathedral of San Lorenzo. The work of the archaeologists has allowed to bring to light important testimonies of the past: the remains of the Roman city of Alba Pompeia, in particular the eastern area of the forum, on which in the sixth century the first Albese cathedral was built, then rebuilt in the early Middle Ages and finally, entirely renovated in the Romanesque period.

The ancient city was buried, hidden, under the floor of the current Cathedral, rebuilt in 1486 by order of the bishop Andrea Novelli, following the destruction of the previous Romanesque building and then completely reshaped in the nineteenth century on a project by the architect Arborio Mella.

Mudi – Diocesan Museum in Alba, Italy

The museum is accessed from the entrance under the majestic Romanesque bell tower, a remarkable element as it contains a second smaller bell tower, datable to the end of the 10th century.

The Museum consists of the archaeological itinerary accompanied by a didactic apparatus and in the exhibition halls, the Crypt of San Pietro and the Sala dello Stemma, which house remnants of the early medieval liturgical furnishings, the lapidary with finds from the Romanesque and Gothic Cathedral and the Renaissance from Bishop Andrea Novelli .

Along the way of the visit it is possible to appreciate some showcases that preserve the ceramic materials dating back to the Roman age and the Middle Ages, the Late Antiquity and High Medieval fragments that constitute a small liturgical treasure, painted plaster due to the pictorial decoration of the building in its most ancient obliterated by the reconstruction of the late fifteenth century, the coins including the pentanoummon of Justin II, the first case of finding of a Byzantine specimen in a Piedmontese excavation.