Casa Museo Lodovico Pogliaghi, Art museum at Sacro Monte, Varese, Italy.
Casa Museo Lodovico Pogliaghi is an art museum on the Sacro Monte in Varese housing over 1500 artworks including paintings, sculptures, and decorative arts displayed in restored rooms. The house also contains approximately 580 archaeological objects collected over many decades, spanning Egyptian, Etruscan, and Greco-Roman periods.
Lodovico Pogliaghi was born in Milan in 1857 and purchased land on the Sacro Monte in 1885 to build this villa. He spent his entire life expanding and refining the house and its collections until his death in 1950.
The house displays Egyptian, Etruscan, and Greco-Roman objects alongside Renaissance and Baroque artworks, revealing the broad collecting interests of its former owner. European and Asian textiles from different periods are also arranged throughout the rooms, showing how these pieces were valued and lived with.
The museum operates from March to November, opening from 10:00 to 13:00 on weekdays and staying open longer on weekends. Guided tours are available to help visitors navigate the extensive collections spread throughout the house.
The museum houses the original plaster cast of the main bronze door of Milan Cathedral, created by Pogliaghi himself as a masterwork. This cast stands as a testament to the artist's skill and remains one of the collection's most striking pieces.
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