The Fesch museum

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The Fesch museum

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The Fesch Palace It was Cardinal Joseph Fesch, the maternal uncle of Napolean the 1st, who ordered the construction of the Fesch Palace. © JD Dallet - age fotostock

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Located in the Fesch Palace (built between 1827 and 1868 on the order of Cardinal Fesch, maternal uncle of Napoleon I, archbishop of Lyon, Primate of the Gauls and French Ambassador to the Holy See), the museum is the most significant provincial museum for Italian paintings.
On his death, Cardinal Fesch, who was perhaps the greatest art lover of his time, left behind a collection of 17,626 items, including 16,000 paintings, sculptures, pieces of furniture and silverware, and a collection of liturgical ornaments consisting of sumptuous silks.
Today, nearly three hundred paintings (of the 802 listed) are displayed through a harmonious succession of rooms. These include primitive Italian canvasses (Bernardo Daddi, the triptych from Rimini, Lorenzo di Credi, Giovanni Bellini, Jacopo del Sellajo and Botticelli) as well as works from the Renaissance, the 16th Century schools and the transition period (Titian, Veronese, Salimbeni and Rutilio Manetti).
Musée Fesch (Fesch Museum)
50-52, rue Cardinal Fesch 20000 Ajaccio. Tel.: +33 (0)4 95 21 48 17.