vatican museums museo missionario

Set in the New Wing of the Vatican Museums, the Missionary-Ethnological Museum collects works of art and traditional objects of non-European cultures on display for the first time on the occasion of the Holy Year 1925 dedicated to the work of Catholic missionaries around the world . At the end of the exhibition and met with enormous success, most of the works were donated to the church. The following year, Pope Pius XI instituted the museum to give a final settlement to these objects. Today, in addition to the material originally in the exhibition, they are on display at the Missionary-Ethnological Museum also made numerous gifts to the popes by the missionary fathers over the years. It is also part of the Borgiano Museum, a collection of objects that belonged to Cardinal Borgia and donated by Propaganda Fide since its founding in 1622. The museum tour is divided into two courses organized according to geographical criteria: a principal of free access for the public and an open secondary on demand for those who want to study objects not yet exposed. The main route is then develops into four exhibition areas through Asia, to 'Oceania, Africa and finally to America. Each is subdivided into sections in which they are presented in total approximately 100.00 works and objects dating from the third century BC from the nineteenth century, documenting the different forms of religions outside Europe.

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