The Museo Civico Palazzo Bonomi Gera is one of the oldest museums in the Marche (founded in 1877). It is situated on Via Vittorio Emanuele, in a beautiful building built in the late 17th century. The museum is divided into five exhibition sections.
The Galleria d’Arte Contemporanea is on the ground floor and exhibits contemporary works by local artists of national renown such as Pericle Fazzini and Adolfo De Carolis.
The first room is devoted to Pericle Fazzini, known as the ‘wind sculptor’, and features a display of thirty works donated to the municipality by the artist himself. This display is enhanced by the inclusion of some of the artist’s notes, making the room stand out from the usual static sequences of works and offering the chance to get to know and understand the artist’s thoughts and creative processes.
The second room displays forty-three works created for the ‘40 Artisti per il Presepio’ exhibition held in the 1980s, which saw local artists work on the theme of the Nativity alongside major names in Italian contemporary art.They included:Mino Maccari, Mario Radice, Renato Guttuso, Pericle Fazzini, Emilio Greco, Primo Angellotti, Arnoldo Ciarrocchi and Adolfo De Carolis.It also features Lode al Signore, a sculpture by Aldo Sergiacomi, created in 1982.
The first floor houses the Pinacoteca Civile with paintings by Vittore Crivelli and Vincenzo Pagani, the Raccolta di Ceramiche (in the Salone delle Feste) and the Gipsoteca ‘Uno Gera’, with sculptures and reliefs by the artist Uno Gera, originally from Ripatransone.There are one hundred plaster works in total (mostly portraits, busts, statues and bas-reliefs) created between 1912 and 1970 and exhibited in a single room.
Lastly, the top floor houses the Museo Storico Risorgimentale ‘Luig Mercantini’. Its interactive exhibition features memorabilia that belonged to the Risorgimento poet from Ripatransone, together with objects linked to the history of the Italian Risorgimento. This floor is also home to the Raccolta Storica Etnografica, a collection of around six hundred pieces from all over the world.
The Museo Archeologico ‘Don Cesere Cellini’ is located on Via Vittorio Emanuele and exhibits materials found in the Ripatransone area, demonstrating how this area was used from Prehistory to the Middle Ages.
The Museo Sistino di Arte Sacra is housed in the church of Sant’Agostino, just a few metres from the town hall.The church is a museum in itself, primarily because of the 15th and 16th-century frescoes that adorn the walls.
The paintings on display include an elegant fresco from 1426 depicting a Madonna enthroned with Child with St Peter and St Paul, a 16th-century fresco of the Madonna del Soccorso attributed to Vincenzo Pagani and the majestic altarpiece of the Adoration of the Cross, from the Capuchin church.The museum also conserves wooden sculptures from the cathedral, including one of St Mary Magdalene supported by angels.
The very unusual Museo del Fischietto e del Vasaio stands on Via Garibaldi. It was founded by the potter Vincenzo Peci with the intention of illustrating the production of terracotta objects, particularly whistles, which originated in Ripatransone at the end of the 19th century.The museum displays six hundred terracotta whistles made during different periods.
Lastly, the 15th-century crypt of the church of San Filippo houses the Museo della Civiltà Contadina e Artigiana, which exhibits around one thousand five hundred work tools used in the countryside and in the artisanal workshops of the Ripatransone area up until the 1950s.
The exhibition provides a detailed picture of how life unfolded in the fields and workshops and, above all, the tools used before industrialization and the mechanization of work made them obsolete.The museum displays the work tools used by blacksmiths and carpenters, tools used for weaving, viticulture, and weighing cereals and legumes, and some means of transport, including three decorated carts, a sterza (four-wheeled cart), a trap and various yokes for oxen.
USEFUL INFORMATION
Museo civico Palazzo Bonomi Gera, Via Vittorio Emanuele
January – June 10.30 am – 6.30 pm (Sat–Sun)
July – August 4 pm–7 pm (Tues–Fri)
September – December 15.30 pm – 6.30 pm (Sat–Sun)
Entrance fee € 3.50 (full); € 2.50 (reduced); € 5.00 (municipal museum complex); € 10.00 (museum network ticket)
Museo Civico Archeologico “C. Cellini”, Via Vittorio Emanuele
All year round 10 am–12 pm; 4 pm–7 pm (Tues–Sun)
Entrance fee Free of charge
Museo del fischietto e del vasaio, Via Garibaldi
All year round By prior booking
Entrance fee Free of charge
Museo della civiltà contadina e artigiana, Church of San Filippo
All year round By prior booking
Entrance fee Free of charge
