David Lazzaretti Study Centre in Arcidosso

Through paintings, objects and photograph, the David Lazzaretti Study Centre in Arcidosso tells the story of David Lazaretti, the “Prophet of Amiata”. In the years immediately following the unification of Italy, he founded the Comunità Giurisdavidica, a church that preached socialist equality with its centre on Monte Labbro, where you can still admire the remains of a tower and chapel.

The museum is kept in Castello Aldobrandesco of Arcidosso: the places, the characters and the experiences that defined the social and religious life of this community are presented here in a large space made up of iconographic material, clothing and banners.

There was so much material produced by Lazzaretti and his movement that it piques a variety of interests: art history, archival, anthropology, the environment. Lazaretti’s gowns are particularly interesting, as are the artefacts acquired from the Turin Museum of Criminal Anthropology and the beautiful letter in which Don Giovanni Bosco defends Lazzaretti by declaring himself ready to testify in his favour.