Photo © Opera Duomo

Opera del Duomo Museum in Siena

The museum is in the right nave of what was supposed to be the New Duomo

Piazza del Duomo, 8, 53100 Siena SI, Italy

Information

Opening hours

Cathedral, Piccolomini Library, Museum, Panorama and “Duomo Nuovo”, Crypt, Baptistry, Beneath the Cathedral, Gate of Heaven

1 March – 31 October: 10:30 am – 7:00 pm
Sundays, public holidays: 1:30 pm – 6:00 pm
Eve of public holidays: 10:30 am – 6:00 pm

1 November – 28 February (but not 26 December – 8 January): 10:30 am – 5:30 pm
Sundays, public holidays: 1:30 pm – 5:30 pm
Sundays, public holidays: 1:30 pm – 5:30 pm

26 December – 6 January: 10:30 am – 6:00 pm
Sundays, public holidays: 1:30 pm – 5:30 pm
Sundays, public holidays: 1:30 pm – 5:30 pm

Uncovering Floor Period Cathedral:
Sundays, public holidays: 9:30 am – 6 pm

Porta del Cielo:
Open from 1 March to 7 January.
The schedules follow those of the Cathedral.

The Museum of the Opera del Duomo is one of the most ancient private museums established in Italy (founded in 1869) and it is in what was supposed to be the right nave of the so-called “Duomo Nuovo” (New Duomo), whose construction, started in 1339, was interrupted after the plague of 1348.

It holds many original artworks coming from the Cathedral, among which the most important ones are the statues of the facade Sibille, Profeti e Filosofi dell’antichità sculpted by Giovanni Pisano between 1285 and 1297, the bas-relief depicting the Madonna in trono col Bambino e il cardinal Casini, artwork by Jacopo della Quercia (1437-1438), and the famous tondo by Donatello with Madonna col Bambino (ca. 1458), made for the ancient gate of Forgiveness placed on the right side of the cathedral.

The Museum keeps above all two masterpieces by Duccio di Boninsegna: the grandiose Vetrata (stained glass) for the apse of the Cathedral (1287-1288) and the Maestà (1308-1311).

The stained glass is unique among the glass handworks produced in the Middle Ages, for the extraordinary technique used by Duccio, who used fourteen large glass panels composed of very high quality glass, chosen in numerous colour ranges ranging from sapphire blue to ruby red, from gold yellow to emerald green. The Maestà is an altarpiece, absolute masterpiece of Italian painting of the early fourteenth century: visible from both sides, with forty figures in the front face and nearly eighty in the stories of the back.

A special mention goes to – among the innumerable artworks of the Museum – the Madonna degli Occhi Grossi, one of the most ancient paintings of the Sienese school, realized by the Master of Tressa, in the second quarter of the thirteenth century, in front of which the Sienese people, before the victorious Battle of Montaperti against Firenze (4 September 1260), uttered a prayer to entrust the city to the Virgin.

I Comuni di Terre di Siena