Episcopal Seminary

Among the first Episcopal Seminaries founded after the Council of Trent

The first Episcopal Seminary of Gerace was founded in 1565 by Bishop Andrea Candida at his expense, according to the decrees of the Counter-Reformation. The original nucleus, located on the site of the building adjacent to the current Civic Museum in Piazza della Tribuna, was only completed at the end of the century, thanks to the efforts of bishops Ottaviano Pasqua and Vincenzo Bonardi. It was probably the latter who turned the ancient church of San Crisogono, adjacent to the building, into the chapel of the soon-to-be-built headquarters for the training of clerics. In the mid-seventeenth century, the sixteenth-century part of the palace was restored and enlarged by bishop Vincenzo Vincentini, as shown by the coat of arms on the door to the Civic Museum.

In the Bourbon age it had a rich collection of liturgical objects and works of art, but the building was heavily damaged by the earthquake of 1783 and, in accordance with royal orders, only the ground floor was left standing. 

After some attempts to extend the building in the first decades of the nineteenth century, between 1834 and 1838 the construction of a new building began next to the bishop's curia, with a square layout and a central courtyard, establishing the new citadel near the cathedral. Following the many vicissitudes of the twentieth century, which even saw the new Seminary become a base of military authorities during the First World War, the building now houses part of the diocesan museum.