The Treasure of San Gennaro of all and for all: two years of changes with a renewed organization that has produced extraordinary results and initiatives for welcoming, inclusion, and accessibility for a Museum projected towards the future thanks to investments from D’Uva, European community funds, and the generosity of the Deloitte Foundation.
From today, the museum dedicated to the Patron Saint of Naples presents itself to the public with renewed exhibits and usability, ready to meet the needs of all visitors to increasingly respond to international museum standards. It becomes an inclusive space with new tools dedicated to accessibility and welcoming created thanks to the work and commitment of the D’Uva company, which has managed the museum since October 2021 on behalf of the Deputation, and further expanded thanks to the generous support of the Deloitte Foundation and received European funding, as part of the PNRR, Mission 1 “Digitalization, innovation, competitiveness and culture“, Component 3 “Tourism and Culture 4.0” (M1C3), Measure 1 “Cultural heritage for the next generation“, Investment 1.2 “Removal of physical and cognitive barriers in museums, libraries and archives to allow wider access and participation in culture“, funded by the European Union – NextGenerationEU and managed by the Ministry of Culture.
Two years of excellent results, registering a 70% increase in visitors from autumn 2021 to autumn 2023, with a constantly growing trend.
A welcoming and accessible Museum thanks to a series of targeted interventions to accompany all visitors in discovering the treasure of Naples. Let’s find them out together!
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- LIS videoguides accessible in complete autonomy: via QR code, visitors can watch videos of two professional actors explaining the museum’s artworks in sign language;
- audio descriptions with texts created specifically to facilitate visits for visually impaired and blind people;
- accessibility not only as the removal of physical and cognitive barriers but also linguistic ones: “A Treasure of an Audio Guide” (“Un Tesoro di audioguida”), launched in June 2022, conceived and produced by D’Uva, is enriched with 6 additional languages (Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Ukrainian, Russian, and Portuguese) in addition to those already present (Italian, English, French, Spanish, German, and Neapolitan);
- a new route accompanies the evocative narrative with voices and music dedicated to adults: the audioguide dedicated to children, a special narration to allow children to explore and learn the history of San Gennaro and one of the world’s most precious treasures, accompanied by the hilarious interpretations of Patrizio Rispo and Nunzia Schiano;
- the big novelty is the 3D works and tactile panels: the incredible 1:1 scale reproduction of the jeweled miter and the touchstone tactile panels for recognizing the shapes of the San Gennaro necklace, the monstrances, and other gifts dedicated to the Patron Saint; in the Royal Chapel, thanks to the contribution of Deloitte, the 3D version of the detail of the silver Paliotto of the High Altar by Gian Domenico Vinaccia and the tactile relief translation of the oil on copper painting by Jusepe de Ribera have been created. The reproduction work was carried out by Art-Up, a consortium of Sannio companies, which, through the digitalization of the works, created detailed models true to the originals, with the scientific supervision of SAAD-Suor Orsola Benincasa (University Service for Activities of Students with Disabilities and SLD);
- the removal of physical and architectural barriers, thanks to the inclusion of iron handrails, stairlifts for access to the museum and bathrooms, benches along the path, ramps to facilitate entry, and the remodulation of ticket counters to make them more suitable and welcoming;
- ceramic orientation maps;
- letismart beacons, small devices that emit sounds to facilitate the path;
- brochures in “nerobraille” writing describing the Chapel and the Sacristies;
- braille panels with room descriptions;
training course for welcoming visitors
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Special thanks to the Italian Union of the Blind and Visually Impaired of Naples and the Campania tra le mani Network for their valuable collaboration in the validation and support for the realization of the various initiatives. In particular, Vincenzo Massa, coordinator of the Regional Braille Transcription Center of Campania, Maria Grazia Gargiulo and Carmela Pacelli of SAAD-Suor Orsola Benincasa (University Service for Activities of Students with Disabilities and SLD) and coordinators of the Campania tra le mani Network.
