Founded by the Cassa di Risparmio di Lucca and opened at the end of 1922, the Museum of the Cathedral is housed in a complex consisting of a XIIIth century tower house, a XVIth century church and a XIVth century main building.The architectonic complex that contains the museum is therefore composed of three buildings, erected in different periods between the XIIIth and XIXth centuries and variously connected according to the needs.
In converting this architectonic complex into a Museum care was taken to restore and preserve both vertical as well as horizontal structures, creating exhibition space on a series of communicating offset levels.
Inside the museum are on display objects of art that prove a century long tradition of devotion and affection to the Cathedral and the Volto Santo figure, an ancient crucifix, object of worship since the Middle Ages when it was known in the whole of Europe.
Altar cloths, liturgical objects, choir books, sacred silverware and paintings, together with many marble statues and fragments all come from the Romanesque Duomo.
