The Cordici Museum (Italian: Museo comunale "Antonino Cordici") is a civic museum in Erice, Sicily. It houses archaeological finds, art works, ethnographic objects, arms and modern paintings illustrating the history of Erice and its community across the centuries.[1]
The museum was established on 2 January 1876 to bring together archaeological finds, coins, inscriptions and art works from suppressed religious orders, as well as items from private collections, notably those of the historian Antonio Cordici (1586–1666), the Hernandez family and later the Coppola family.[1][2] It was dedicated to Cordici in recognition of his pioneering role as the first collector in Erice.[2]
The museum was first housed in the Palazzo dei Marchesi Pilati, which had been incorporated into the Palazzo Municipale on Piazza della Loggia, the seat of the municipal offices since their transfer from the Balio Towers around 1861.[3]. Since 2011–15 the museum has been located in the former convent of the Third Order of Saint Francis on Vico San Rocco.[1] Parts of the museum's collection are housed at a satellite location at the Spanish Quarter.[4]
Collections
The museum is divided into five main sections: archaeological, sacred art, arms, figurative arts (painting and sculpture) and contemporary art, the latter dedicated to the La Salerniana collection.[2] Highlights include:[1]
A marble female head popularly identified as Venus, linked to the ancient cult of the goddess at Erice.
A pintadera (Neolithic terracotta stamp with labyrinth designs).
Three maiolica panels, including the coat of arms of the Badalucco family.
Ethnographic works such as an alabaster nativity scene and a Flight into Egypt group in wax.
Liturgical objects, including embroidered vestments and a wooden crucifix by the Trapani sculptor Pietro Orlando.
About one hundred paintings by the Erice artist Alberto Augugliaro, and other works including Noli me tangere, Marta e Maddalena by Andrea Carreca, and a Flemish-inspired Madonna dei Sette Dolori.
A marble well-head of Gagini school origin, decorated with putti and floral motifs, from the Mother Church of Erice.
Exhibitions
In 2024 the museum introduced an immersive audiovisual installation titled Venere Immersiva, dedicated to the ancient cult of Venus Erycina, whose temple once stood on the site of the Castle of Venus in Erice. Projected on the walls of a dedicated hall, the video installation retraces the millennia-old veneration of the goddess of fertility and seafaring, worshipped by the Phoenicians, Greeks and Romans.[5]
In 2025 the installation was enhanced with 24 multilingual audioguides in Italian, English, French, Spanish and German, funded through the PNRR (Piano Nazionale di Ripresa e Resilienza) programme. The guides are designed to make the content more accessible to international visitors and to provide deeper insight into the Mediterranean tradition surrounding the cult of Venus.[5]
↑ Vincenzo Adragna, «Il maestro domenicano e l’aria del palazzo», in Trapani Nuova, settimanale di attualità, cultura e sport, 27 febbraio 1987, p. 4 (rubrica Antiche cronache di uomini e cose).
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