Papi e Santi marchigiani a Castel Sant’Angelo

A journey through art, culture and spirituality in the year of the Jubilee thanks to documents and unpublished or little-known works. The exhibition hosted in the Upper Armory Rooms of Castel Sant’Angelo recounts the relationship between the Eternal City and the region of Marche, an area rich in traditions and with a past closely linked to the Papal States, revealing the influence that the popes and saints born in this region have had in shaping Italian ecclesiastical and artistic culture.

The dialogue between sacred art and ecclesiastical history invites visitors to explore the Marche region to discover its cultural and spiritual roots, to enter its abbeys, monasteries and pilgrimage sites to be fascinated by stories, voices, faces and ancient memories. The exhibition is divided into 3 sections. The first section focuses on the nine popes to whom the Marche region gave birth, from Nicholas V in 1227 to the last pope-king Pius IX: portraits, medals or objects related to their patronage, such as El Greco’s tabernacle linked to the figure of Pope Sixtus V, sketch an unusual and fascinating picture. The second section is dedicated to the saints and blessed (for example, St. Nicholas of Tolentino and St. Maria Goretti), told through engravings, paintings, objects of worship and spiritual value such as the precious pages of St. Marcellin’s Evangelary dating back to the 6th century. The third section, also illustrated through maps, plans and ancient drawings, shows the sacred itineraries of the region: hermitages, oratories, sanctuaries, abbeys, churches and cathedrals, splendid testimonies of Romanesque and Renaissance art and, at one time, stages of a complex itinerary of the soul.

The exhibition includes documents from a wide range of sources, ranging from public institutions to religious organizations, private lenders to collectors, authentic works of art, original artifacts, archaeological finds, historical documents, photographs and films, offering visitors a rich experience of knowledge and emotion.