Info and hours
Monday, Wednesday and Friday: 10:00 AM - 1:00 PM
Tuesday and Thursday: 10:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Saturday by appointment
Sunday closed
From 18 to 26 October 2025, the Antico Ospedale Santa Maria della Scala Foundation participates in the eleventh edition of the Week of Open Archives, the event promoted by Rete Fotografia to promote and raise awareness of the photographic heritage preserved in Italian archives. Each year the initiative involves cultural organizations and institutions across the country, offering the public unique opportunities to access often inaccessible materials and to reflect on the documentary and historical value of photography.
The theme chosen for this year is Resilient Photography: the role of images in historical narrative, with a particular focus on the Second World War and on photography's ability to tell, preserve and pass on historical memory.
During the week, within the Giuliano Briganti Library and Photographic Archive, it will be possible to participate in activities for children, meetings and free guided tours during which visitors can closely explore historical photographs of works of art that disappeared, were destroyed or were stolen during the war.
Events scheduled
📍 Saturday 18 October 2025 – 4:30 PM
Giuliano Briganti Library and Photographic Archive and Children's Art Museum
Discovering memory with colors – Visit and workshop for children
An activity designed for children aged 4 and up, accompanied by at least one adult, to discover the stories hidden in photographic archives: films, negatives and stereoscopes tell the fate of lost or recovered works of art. At the end of the visit, there will be a creative workshop to reinterpret the observed images through color.
🎨 Duration: 1h 30min (visit + workshop)
💶 Cost: € 5.00 per participant (second accompanying adult free)
👉 Reservation required – max 25 participants
📩 educazione@santamariadellascala.com
📍 Tuesday 21 October 2025 – 5:30 PM
Giuliano Briganti Library and Photographic Archive
Photographs of lost works: the case of the Marriniano Crucifix for the Basilica of the Osservanza
Art historian Marco Fagiani presents the discovery of some historical photographs documenting a nineteenth-century crucifix destroyed during the bombing of the Basilica of the Osservanza in Siena in January 1944. The images, preserved in the Péleo Bacci archive held at the Biblioteca degli Intronati, have made it possible to recover the visual memory of the work, today attributed to the workshop of the Sienese sculptor Lorenzo di Mariano, known as il Marrina.
👉 Reservation recommended – max 30 participants
📩 fototeca.briganti@santamariadellascala.com
📍 Thursday 23 October 2025 – 5:30 PM
Giuliano Briganti Library and Photographic Archive
Photographs of lost works: the photographic testimony in the collection of the Giuliano Briganti Photographic Archive
A themed guided visit by art historian Lucia Simona Pacchierotti, exploring archival images that document works now lost, such as St. Matthew and Caravaggio’s Angel or Sassetta’s Assumption. The meeting also includes a selection of analog prints from late 19th-century glass stereoscopes, made in collaboration with the Sienese association LUX – Dopolavoro Fotografico, which show historical buildings that no longer exist today.
👉 Reservation recommended – max 25 participants
📩 fototeca.briganti@santamariadellascala.com
Locations
Others Events
- Initiatives
Closing of the exhibition “Paper Garden. The thread and the mark: grafts, assemblages, diary-books”
6 Jun 2025/6 Jun 2025On the occasion of the exhibition's closing, on Friday, June 6 we are offering a finissage made up of several moments throughout the day. The artist will be present at the finissage.
- Exhibitions
"Oh Good!" by Moustapha Cessay at the Briganti Library
24 Sep 2025/31 Oct 2025On the occasion of the fifth edition of the Festival Voci Migranti, the Biblioteca e Fototeca Giuliano Briganti hosts from 24 to 31 October the work Oh Good! by the artist Moustapha Cessay, created as part of the project Le Valigie Digitali.
- Presentations
Fausto Melotti. In Lightness | A tribute to Italo Calvino
20 Sep 2025/20 Sep 2025Saturday, 20 September 2025, at 4:30 PM, at the Sala Sant’Ansano, the presentation of the book Fausto Melotti. In Lightness | A Tribute to Italo Calvino, edited by Michelina Eremita and published by Silvana Editoriale, will be held.
- #MeetingsAtLaScala
#IncontriallaScala- Museology and perception. From the contemplation of beauty to the aesthetic experience
18 Sep 2025/18 Sep 2025Thursday, September 18 at 5:30 PM, the Santa Maria della Scala hosts a new event in the #IncontriallaScala series, dedicated to the presentation of the book Museology and Perception. From the contemplation of beauty to the aesthetic experience, written by Domenico Piraina and Maurizio Vanni and published by Pacini Editore.
- Initiatives
Bright-Night returns to Santa Maria della Scala. Stands, talks, research walks, guided tours and music
26 Sep 2025/26 Sep 2025The Bright-Night 2025 of the University of Siena returns on Friday, September 26 inside the museum complex.
- Events
Siena Comics For Kids. The comics festival at the museum!
3 Oct 2025/5 Oct 2025At Santa Maria della Scala, from October 3 to 5, 2025, the fifth edition of Siena Comics For Kids will take place, the comics festival dedicated to children and young people.
- Presentations
Presentation of the book “Vita mia. Japan 1943. Memories of an Italian girl in a prison camp” by Dacia Maraini
30 Jan 2025/30 Jan 2025Thursday, 30 January 2025 at 6:00 PM, in the Italo Calvino hall, we host the writer Dacia Maraini who presents the book Vita mia. Giappone 1943. Memorie di una bambina italiana in un campo di prigionia (Rizzoli, 2023), in the week in which Holocaust Remembrance Day is commemorated.
- Conferences
Public conversation Santa Maria della Scala and its future with Architect Luca Molinari
21 May 2025/21 May 2025On Wednesday, May 21, in the Italo Calvino hall, architect Luca Molinari will speak with representatives of Odile Decq, Studio LAN and Hannes Peer to present the design competition for the restoration and enhancement of over 18,000 sq m of the Museum Complex. The goal is to strengthen its cultural and educational mission.
- Initiatives
At the museum: rehearsals of Regeneration Opera by Amat
9 Oct 2025/10 Oct 2025In October the museum hosts the workshops of the project Supporting the Horizon and the rehearsals of Regeneration Opera, an AMAT initiative for the training of young musicians. The project involves schools and the museum's workshops, promoting the regeneration of the theatre audience.
- Conferences
Well-being at the museum: examples of good practice projects for people with Alzheimer's and those who care for them
1 Oct 2025/1 Oct 2025On the occasion of World Alzheimer's Day, Wednesday, October 1, the Fondazione Antico Ospedale Santa Maria della Scala organizes the conference Well-being at the museum: examples of good practices from projects for people with Alzheimer's and those who care for them, a moment of reflection and discussion open to cultural and healthcare professionals and the public.
