Entrance of the Bevagna Civic Museum at Palazzo Lepri, with wooden doorway and wrought-iron fanlight on an ochre façade.
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Civic Museum of Bevagna: Palazzo Lepri and its Museum

A Neoclassical Palace

The Civic Museum of Bevagna is housed in Palazzo Lepri, an eighteenth-century gem designed by Andrea Vici, a pupil of Luigi Vanvitelli. Acquired by the municipality after the earthquake of 1832, the palace is not merely a container for artworks but the first and most important exhibit of the collection itself, having served as the Town Hall for over a century.

The Collections: between Archaeology and Painting

The museum itinerary unfolds as a dialogue between different historical periods.

The Archaeological Section: it originated from the eighteenth-century bequest of the scholar Abbot Fabio Alberti—whose finds are still embedded along the main staircase, including the remains of a colossal Roman statue—and tells the story of ancient Mevania. First an Umbrian centre and later a thriving Roman municipium, its importance is attested by a valuable hoard of Republican coins and by a significant local production of sandstone cinerary urns dating to the 2nd-1st centuries BC.

The Picture Gallery: Formed primarily as a result of post-Unification state confiscations, the picture gallery offers a rich overview of Umbrian figurative culture from the sixteenth to the eighteenth century. Among the highlights are the Immaculate Conception by Andrea Camassei, the moving Cassa of Blessed Giacomo by Ascensidonio Spacca, known as il Fantino, as well as works by Dono Doni and Corrado Giaquinto. Of particular interest is the wooden scale model of the Church of Our Lady of Grace, created by the architect Valentino Martelli.

Detail of the façade of Palazzo Lepri in Bevagna, with central coat of arms, arched doorway and wrought-iron fanlight.

Detail of the façade of Palazzo Lepri in Bevagna

Palazzo Lepri - Interior

Aerial view of Bevagna

The 19th-century Council Chamber

Here, among the original council benches, the painter Mariano Piervittori created, between 1867 and 1868, a cycle of portraits and allegorical figures of great evocative power. The frescoed ceiling celebrates illustrious citizens of Bevagna, depicted full-length and glorified by winged deities, while the walls are adorned with medallions bearing the effigies of 41 figures—from saints to military leaders, from men of letters to cardinals—forming a true secular pantheon.

The Rooms of Illustrious Figures

The museum devotes special attention to modern figures from Bevagna. The rooms on the third floor are dedicated to the entomologist Filippo Silvestri, the film director Mario Mattoli—a precursor of Neorealism and the creator of celebrated films starring Totò—the homeopathic physician Agostino Mattoli, and the painter Carlo Frappi, whose works stand out for their vivid pictorial quality.

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Explore the surroundings
Main attractions in the vicinity