The atelier museum is located within Colonna Castle , which dominates over the old historic town with its commanding presence. Built during the Middle Ages, in a dominant position over the territory, the castle was elevated to the status of pope residence by Oddone I Colonna, born in Genazzano and made Pope in 1417 under the name of Martino V (1417-1431). Though the castle went through some transformations over the years, it still preserves some extraordinary artistic assets, like the seventeenth-century frescoes in the private chapel, almost completely intact to this day.

The Museum currently houses the municipal painting collection, officially founded in 2021, and the Infiorata (flower festival) Museum. The exhibition itinerary of the painting collection starts with two rooms dedicated to Scipione Vannutelli (Genazzano, 1834-1894), where more than 40 pieces, oils and watercolors alike, are displayed. As a typically figurative painter gifted with great sensitivity and skills, Vannutelli can fully be considered a European-style artist.

The second focal point of the collection is the works of the famous “Genazzano Prize”. Held between 1953 and 1970 and followed by a last festival in 1972, the award was a highly valued artistic experience, able to engage the greatest exponents of the roman Nuova Figurazione (an art movement born in Rome in the 1960s), as well as intellectuals, writers and prominent personalities of Italian culture at the time. Among the authors of paintings and graphics that won the prize are Antonietta Raphael Mafai, Francesco Trombadori, Renzo Vespignani, Ennio Calabria, Piero Guccione, Valeriano Ciai, Aldo Turchiaro and Dante Ricci.
The exhibit dedicated to the Infiorata Museum celebrates one of the oldest and most beloved local traditions, where the fleeting art of flower arrangements becomes an expression of faith and community.

In 2012, Genazzano’s Infiorata won the Guinness World Record for the longest flower carpet in the world, a testament to the vitality of a tradition that has reinvented itself over time without losing its deep symbolic and social value.

Campagna fotografica realizzata nell’ambito del progetto “Oltre Roma” e finanziata dalla Regione Lazio, Avviso Pubblico “La cultura fa sistema 2021”