Brotherhood of the Holy Shroud of Turin
Via San Domenico 28
10122 Turin - Italy
Tel./fax: 011.4365832
e-mail: sindone@tin.it

Open all days, 8-12; 15-19
During the Exposition
(12 august - 26 october)
from 9 AM to 8 PM(last tour).

For tour reservation call 800.329.329(from Italy only).

Most books and other material about the Shroud available on the market can be purchased at the Museum.

Records. The Museum has its own specialist book-shop.
Researchers may also consult the Museum files, library and photographic library.

WHERE AND WHY

The crypt of the Church of the Holy Shroud where the Museum is housed.

Il Museo della Sindone si trova nella cripta della chiesa del SS. Sudario di Torino. The Museum of the Shroud is in the crypt of the Church of the Holy Shroud. The new premises were inaugurated on 15 April 1998 after extensive restoration work wich has brought to light the particular structural features of the crypt. Now virtual frescoes of the Passion of Christ are projected onto the vault and niches by fifteen projectors, and the images slowly but constantly change as the visitor proceeds. The Museum first opened in 1936. It traces the various stages of the history of the Shroud and the scientific studies on its image bringing together the pieces conserved by the Brotherhood of the Holy Shroud.
The Museum provides the visitor with the information available to date on the Shroud from various angles: historical, scientific, devotional and artistic.

SCIENTIFIC PATH

The history of scientific research on the Shroud dates back to 1898, and since then researchers from various fields of expertise have tried to "read" the Shroud and its image in the attempt to disclose its mysteries.
The official plates of the photographs taken by Secondo Pia in 1898 are on display in the museum, together with those taken by Giuseppe Enrie in 1931. These triggered all later scientific investigations, which are documented in the museum, culminating in the astonishing three-dimensional image of the face of the Man on the Shroud processed by Giovanni Tamburelli in 1978.

The camera Secondo Pia used to take the first photographs of the Shroud on 25 and 28 May 1898

Experimental cloth by G. Judica Cordiglia aimed at recreating the Shroud image in the laboratory (1940s)

Considerable space is devoted to further studies on the fabric and its weave, the microscopic traces of pollen, blood, aloes, myrrh, aragonite found in the cloth, forensic tests, the imprint of coins left on the Shroud, iconography analysis.
Very important scientifically speaking is the collection of the pieces of fabric used by researchers in their experiments to explain the formation of the Shroud image. There are the cloths used by Paul Vignon at the beginning of the century, and others by G. Judica Cordiglia and R. Romanese in the 1940s, by S. Rodante in the 1970s to 1990s, and by P. Baima Bollone in the 1980s. There are also the pieces of cloth used by V. Pesce Delfino which supporters of the theory that the Shroud is a man-made artefact have often referred to, but even these do not possess all the characteristics of the Shroud image which has endured relatively unchanged over centuries.

HISTORICAL PATH

A special section is dedicated to the history - both conjectural and factual - of the Shroud and its worship, which has been very strong in Turin and Piedmont since the second half of the fifteenth century when the Shroud became the property of the Savoy family. The Brotherhood of the Holy Shroud was, and still is, the fulcrum of this worship as expressed during the periodic public Expositions which are well documented by the drawings and coins produced to commemorate these events.

MULTIMEDIA AIDS

The displays are supported by multimedia systems which help the visitor visually to understand the evolution of scientific research on the Shroud, especially the eidomatic studies carried out on the image by computer.

PATH FOR THE BLIND

The Museum is trying out a path for the blind which has been set up thanks to the help of the Turin branch of the Italian Blind Association (Unione Italiana Ciechi). The book "Toccare la Sindone" (Touch the Shroud), published by Silvio Zamorani, is in braille with transparent ink in relief printed in serigraphy and an audio cassette (in English, Italian, French and Spanish) is included. It helps visitors to understand the Museum displays and broadens their knowledge of the Shroud.

THE BROTHERHOOD OF THE HOLY SHROUD OF TURIN AND THEIR CHURCH

The Brotherhood of the Holy Shroud, the owner of the museum, was founded in 1598, twenty years after the Shroud's arrival in Turin.
Following edicts by king Vittorio Amedeo II, in 1728 the Brotherhood built and managed the first hospital for the mentally ill in the Savoy state.
The church (1734-35) is a jewel of Piedmontese rococo and was built according to the project by Brother Mazzone, who was an engineer. The church has a single nave (23x 12 m), but in origine it had no opening onto the outside as it was the private chapel of the Brotherhood and the hospital. The ornamental part and the frescoes of the vault and presbytery were painted by the Venetian artist P. Alzeri and M.A. Milocco from Turin. The latter also painted the altar-piece of the high altar which depicts the blessed Amedeo IX of Savoy, the Blessed Virgin of the Graces and the "Trinity of the Shroud".

In 1761-65, on the occasion of a new activity involving the catechism and religious care of the soldiers and their families residing in the neighbouring Military Quarters, the church was opened to the public and it ceased to be a private chapel. The facade was therefore built, probably by G.A.Paracca, who decided to adopt the Castellamonte scheme of the Sainte-Chapelle of Chambéry where the Shroud had been kept in the first half of the 1500s, and the bell tower was added on soon afterwards by the same architect.
At the moment the Brotherhood premises house the International Centre of Sindonology which was founded in 1959 by a decree of the Archbishop of Turin. The Centre carries on the work of the Cultores Sanctae Sindonis which had conducted research on the Shroud and looked after the Museum since the 1930s.