The Civic Museum of Altomonte was inaugurated in 1980 in concomitance with the celebrations of the seventh centenary of the birth of Simone Martini, of which he preserves the San Ladislao. The collection is housed in some rooms obtained from the ancient cells of the former Dominican Convent, adjacent to the church of Santa Maria della Consolazione, was built between 1342 and 1440 by the will of Covella Ruffo Sanseverino.The convent, wisely restored on the initiative of the Municipal Administration, also houses the Civic Library and the Historical Library and documents through various exhibition halls: Medieval, Dominican-Quadreria, Sculptures, Silver, Paraments and Lapidary – the development of an important chapter in history of Altomonte, of the patronage of its feudal lords Filippo Sangineto and Covella Ruffo Sanseverino and of the religious order of the Dominicans.The exhibited works all come from the Churches of Santa Maria della Consolazione, San Francesco di Paola and San Giacomo Apostolo and are owned by FEC (Fondo Edifici Culto – Ministry of the Interior).Among the exhibited works we can admire: the table of Simone Martini depicting “Saint Ladislaus” king of Hungary, commissioned by Filippo Sangineto for the Church of Santa Maria della Consolazione, around 1326; the two tables by Bernardo Daddi, the earliest evidence of the pro-Giottesque guidelines of the Angevin court registered in Calabria; two alabaster slabs representing the “Stories of the Virgin and the Stories of the Passion of Christ”, dated to the first half of the fourteenth century; the Altar with scenes from the Passion of Christ, the Master of Antonio and Onofrio Penna, from the fifteenth century; the table of the “Madonna delle Pere” (1460), by Paolo di Ciacio da Mileto (VV), known as an apprentice in the workshop of Antonello da Messina; the table of the Madonna di Pietro Negroni, pupil of Polidoro da Caravaggio and the painting of the Deposition by Felice Vitale. In addition, the museum is enriched by numerous other works related to artistic currents from the south, from the school of Solimena to that of Luca Giordano, to mobile pharmacies, tabernacles, Argenti, sacred vestments, sculptures, Gregorian codes and stone fragments.
