The Italian Museums of Shrines. Specificities and Relations with Pilgrimage

Italy is a country very rich of Shrines in all her regions, destinations of more or less important local pilgrimages. A lot of them have a specific museum deeply connected with the sacred place and its history. The aim of this research is to verify in which way visiting one of those museums is part of the pilgrimage itself, and in which way it is possible to find a link between the religious identity of the pilgrims and the cultural content of the museum. A few case-studies, chosen among museums of little dimensions and representative of different Italian regions, will be provided