Museum of Folk Arts and Traditions of the Upper Tiber Valley at Taglieschi Palace

Overlooking the stunning piazza Mameli, in the heart of the district known as the Borghetto of Anghiari, the State Museum of Popular Arts and Traditions of the Upper Tiber Valley is housed inside the elegant Renaissance-style Palazzo Taglieschi, named after the Anghiarian noble family that had it built.

The museum itinerary is quite dynamic as it is spread over four levels leading to a large window with a beautiful view over the village. The twenty exhibition rooms are connected by corridors and staircases that follow an irregular pattern due to the fact that the palace arose as a result of the merging of several medieval buildings and tower-houses.

On the ground floor we can admire sculptural fragments, frescoes and objects telling the story of Anghiari and its valley, the Valtiberina.

On the first floor, we find some remarkable wooden sculptures among which is the Museum’s true masterpiece, the Madonna and Child by Jacopo della Quercia, dating back to 1420, as well as some beautiful Della Robbia sculptures. Of great interest is the 16th-century positive table organ. A unique and still functioning piece.

On the upper floors we can also admire a splendid collection of richly decorated weapons produced in Anghiari, as well as 16th- and 17th-century canvases by great artists, such as the Florentines Giovanni Antonio Sogliani, Matteo Rosselli, Giovan Battista Ghidoni, and Jacopo Vignali from Arezzo. Finally, local popular devotion is documented by an interesting collection of statuettes depicting the Virgin Mary adorned with ribbons and lace, the so-called Madonnine agghindate.

Visiting the Palazzo Taglieschi Museum means getting in touch with the truest spirit of Anghiari and its inhabitants, a place to explore with curiosity and a desire to discover.