The Museo Giacomo Manzù is a monographic museum, dedicated to the artist from Bergamo (1908-1991), author of the Porta della Morte at St. Peter’s and the famous Cardinals. It houses the sculptor’s richest collection of works.

On 22 May 1969, at the foot of the tuffaceous rock on which Ardea stands, the Amici di Manzù Collection was inaugurated. It was the brainchild of the sculptor’s wife, Inge Schabel, who was assisted in its realisation by the Comitato Amici di Manzù (formed by, among others, Cesare Brandi and Alexandre Rosenberg). Ten years later, Giacomo Manzù donated the collection to the Italian State and in 1981 the Museo Giacomo Manzù was opened to the public.

The museum, which today holds about one hundred sculptures and a large collection of graphic works, totalling about five hundred works, is housed in a large building specially designed as an exhibition facility, with two rooms lit by skylights, in the place, Ardea, where the artist himself had decided to move in 1964, and boasts a collection selected by the artist himself to narrate his entire production.

The Museo Giacomo Manzù has a thematic layout: the works are gathered around content nuclei that represent the main areas of the artist’s production and houses masterpieces such as the Cardinals, the sketches for St. Peter’s Death Gate, the Lovers, Child on a Chair, and the David.