Baptistery
The visit to the Museum is complete with the early Christian Baptistery, one of the main and well-known Byzantine monuments of northern Italy. The building, built in the 5th-6th century AD with an internal octagonal plan and external decagonal, it stands on the ancient level of the city, adjacent to the Cathedral of San Michele Arcangelo.
The interior is foreseen by the original baptismal font, where the celebration of the sacrament of Baptism by "immersion" took place. There are also baptisms from the late medieval and late sixteenth century. The vault of the central niche presents the magnificent polychrome mosaic, where the mysteries of the Christian faith are expressed through a rich symbolism with intense blue and yellow colors.
The original masonry vault was destroyed during an incorrect restoration in 1898. During the works some late-ancient choices for the lightening of the dome emerged; published the Baptistery is surmounted by a wooden structure of the early 1900s.
You enter the Baptistery with a guided tour by the staff of the Diocesan Museum.
The early Christian Baptistery