Palace of Museums - Varallo Art Gallery and Calderini Museum

The Pinacoteca di Varallo, located in the Palace of Museums in Varallo, is one of the first artistic collections in Piedmont. It contains important testimonies of the artistic vocation which, starting from the Sacro Monte, has crossed the Valsesia over the centuries.

The initiative to establish an art gallery in Varallo was taken in 1886 by two meritorious associations: the "Society for the Encouragement of the Study of Drawing" and the "Society for the Conservation of Works of Art and Monuments in Valsesia", which merged in 1998 into the "Society for the encouragement of the study of drawing and conservation of works of art in Valsesia-ONLUS".

The aim of the project was (and continues to be) to collect, study and promote the knowledge and conservation of the important artistic testimonies that Valsesia was able to express in the period from the 15th to the 19th century.

Donations from private citizens have always characterized the expansion of the cultural heritage of the Varallo Art Gallery. The latest in chronological order were the Franchi Collection which includes valuable examples of majolica from the most significant Italian schools and the collection of paintings dating from the 15th century. to the 20th century of the Remogna family temporarily housed in the Church of San Carlo.

At the end of the 1950s, the Conservation Society acquired a large part of the Museum Palace and the Art Gallery was placed in the rooms on the first and second floors.

The civic art gallery of Varallo today boasts approximately 3,300 works of painting, sculpture, drawings, prints and furnishings which offer an important overview of Valsesian art.

Map: Palace of Museums - Varallo Art Gallery and Calderini Museum