Tarragona Diocesan Museum
since 2024
Tarragona
80-cm-high in Santa Tecla’s marble
The Diocesan Museum of Tarragona reopened at the end of 2024. It now has a new layout, a more dignified atmosphere, and a story that goes from the early days of Christianity to the 21st century. The museum has five rooms that take visitors on a chronological tour.
The collections started in the middle of the 19th century, but the museum wasn’t founded until 1914. Archbishop Antolín López Peláez opened it with a collection of liturgical objects and art from the Cathedral Chapter and various parishes. Since then, the collections have grown to about 10,000 objects.
The museum has Gothic collections from the 14th to 15th centuries, with works by famous artists like Bernat Martorell, Jaume Ferrer II, and Lluís Borrassà. The museum also has art from the Renaissance, when artists from the area were really talented. In the Baroque period (17th and 18th centuries), the museum has pieces by Lluís and Francesc Bonifàs i Massó. From the 20th and 21th centuries, stands out the MARIA sculpture by Guido Dettoni della Grazia.
The sculpture MARIA of Tarragona by Guido Dettoni della Grazia is part of the Diocesan Museum of Tarragona collection. It is an enlargement, 80 centimeters high, sculpted in Santa Tecla’s marble (patron saint of Tarragona) from the Santa Tecla quarry, which is now closed, next to the Loreto Hermitage in Tarragona. The marble was prepared for the artist sculpting by the Marbres Castelló, which is also in Tarragona and is dedicated to working with marbles and granites.
This sculpture was made for the “MARIA mare de deu” exhibition held in the Old Refectory of the Canons of Tarragona Cathedral in 1999. Later, it was donated by the company Vodafone (formerly Airtel) and became part of the collection of the Diocesan Museum of this ancient Roman city.
