I have always felt tenderness for the artworks of the

past because of their fragility. They’ve been very

much loved by people throughout the times. They’ve

been passed on from hand to hand, caressed and

constantly cared for.

A building needed to be made. It had to house 2

tabernacles and their sinopsies, which had been

waiting long, in the rooms of the public library for a

final placement.

In order to do this, in the historical centre of castefiorentino,

along Via Testa Ferrata, a building of the 60s

had been demolished near the train station and next

to the Oratoriodi San carlo. The new design of this

building, which has a total area of about 400 square

metres, closely follows the ground traces of the old

building and it is luckily detached from the buildings

around because it is located in an empty space which

is a sort of square.

The building is rooted to the ground through a functional

island-shaped base which solves the problem

of urban furnishing meant in the classical sense (benches,

flower pots etc.). The curvilinear base takes

over the space around the building and, at the same

time, people take over a little of the museum’s space:

the base becomes a bench, a play area for children

and adults, a theatre for small outdoor events.

The building had to be entirely coated with cotto; in

this way, it refers to materials and finishes of some of

the local churches.

Inside, the museum, is spread over 4 floors, three

above ground and one underground. The ground

floor is partly characterized by a low ceiling: a shaded

area which quickly runs to the full-height space where

the “Tabernacolo della Visitazione” is placed. This is

illuminated by a cascade of natural light coming from

the skylight in the ceiling.

On the first floor, recessed into the corner-wall, we

find the “Tabernacolo della Madonna della Tosse”

which looks like a television screen. The staircase

linking the floors, becomes a kind of visual path which

frames the Tabernacles (now lacking their original

context), according to new and constantly changing

perspectives. It stops on the first floor, and then starts

again on the opposite side thus reaching a room on

the second floor, a naturally suitable space for small

exhibitions and educational workshops.

The building, due to its small size, retains something

domestic; it is conceived like a home-studio where

Benozzo Gozzoli, surrounded by his students, seems

to join us while we’re looking at these frescoes and

he’s still working on them.