Inside the historic walled city centre, the former Bishop’s Palace hosts the Diocesan Museum of Sacred Art. The building, itself notable from a cultural and architectural viewpoint, presents a valuable collection of works from the historic dioceses of Feltre and Belluno.
Here we find paintings by Jacopo Tintoretto, Luca Giordano, and Sebastiano Ricco; and sculptures by Giacomo Piazetta, Francesco Terilli and Andrea Brustolon.
As well, there are rare and unique artworks such as the Chalice of the deacon Orso, a Eucharist Chalice from the 5th Century that, according to academics, is the oldest Western communion chalice; and the boxwood Post-Byzantine cross, a masterful microsculpture dating back to 1542. Amazingly, this work only 37 centimetres in size, presents 52 evangelical scenes, 485 figurines and 200 slender columns as thin as silk threads.
Other extraordinary pieces are the Longobard bas-relief entitled Pluteo di Paderno, two 13th Century silver astylar crosses and the reliquary bust of Saint Silvester by the Tuscan goldsmith Antonio di Salvi.
