International Nativity Scene Museum “Angelo Stefanucci”

The International Nativity Scene Museum "Angelo Stefanucci" is temporarily closed to the public: the contacts page of the official site states it without ambiguity and invites you to get in touch to arrange private visits. Anyone who wants to try has two contacts, the phone +39 06 6796146 and the mailbox info@museopresepioroma.it, both of the Associazione Italiana Amici del Presepio E.T.S., which owns and runs the collection. The location remains the historic one: the basement of the church of Santi Quirico e Giulitta, with entrance through the church at Via Tor de' Conti 23, 00184 Rome, to the left of the Hotel Forum. If the church door is closed, the site says to ring the Association's buzzer at number 31/a, on the right side of the hotel. Entry is by free offering: no ticket, no presale, no platform to consult. The ordinary hours, the ones in force before the suspension, were Wednesday and Saturday from 17:00 to 19:30, with closure in July and August and guided visits on other days by appointment. One fact worth fixing right away: it is not a civic or state museum, it is a private collection of a third-sector body housed in an ecclesiastical building, so MIC card and Roma Pass have no validity here and there is no online booking circuit. This guide is part of our collection devoted to the museums of Rome.

That said, and said with the clarity owed to anyone at risk of making a trip for nothing, it is worth explaining what you miss by staying outside that door. Because under the church of Santi Quirico e Giulitta, 200 meters from the Forum of Augustus, there is one of the most singular collections Rome possesses: 300 square meters divided into three naves, more than 3000 pieces, nativity scenes that come from all the Italian regions and from dozens of nations, and a still lower level where the frescoed apse of an early Christian church of the 6th and 7th centuries opens.

It is a small museum, run by volunteers, with no ticket office and no bookshop in the sense the big institutions mean it. It is also, and this makes it interesting for those who have already used up the canonical list of the Capitoline Museums and the Colosseum, one of those places that tell Rome from below: from domestic devotion, from regional craftsmanship, from the Italian capacity to turn a four-line gospel episode into an autonomous artistic genre lasting eight centuries.

What the International Nativity Scene Museum "Angelo Stefanucci" Is

The full name, the one that appears in the official lists, is Museo tipologico internazionale del presepio "Angelo Stefanucci". The adjective that matters is the first, and almost nobody reads it carefully. Tipologico means that the collection is not ordered by value, by period or by signature, but by type: by material, by technique, by geographic area of origin. It is not a museum that displays the 100 most beautiful nativity scenes in the world. It is a museum that tries to document how many different ways humanity has found to build the same scene.

Founded in 1967, it occupies about 300 square meters divided into three naves in the rooms beneath the church of Santi Quirico e Giulitta, at the Imperial Forums. The collection exceeds 3000 pieces and covers all the Italian regions and dozens of foreign nations. Beside the nativity scenes there are books, medals, posters and stamps on the theme, a specialist library that can be consulted on request and a collection of videocassettes and DVDs on exhibitions, technique courses and the history of the nativity scene.

The original core is a donation. Angelo Stefanucci, then president and founder of the Associazione Italiana Amici del Presepio, handed over to the museum a large part of his personal collection of nativity scenes gathered from around the world. Around that first core, over the years, hundreds of works have accumulated: some purchased, many donated by the makers themselves, others arrived from private individuals and from public and private institutions. It is a collection that grew by affectionate accumulation before curatorial strategy, and it shows: the internal logic is that of an association collecting what its own members and its own masters produce.

Where the International Nativity Scene Museum "Angelo Stefanucci" Is and How to Get There

Via Tor de' Conti is a short, uphill street running parallel to Via dei Fori Imperiali, behind the Forum of Augustus and the Forum of Nerva, in the Monti district. If you arrive from Via dei Fori Imperiali you turn into it from Largo Corrado Ricci. If you arrive from Via Cavour you go down past the bulk of the Torre dei Conti. The most convenient visual landmark is the Hotel Forum: the church of Santi Quirico e Giulitta is to its left, at number 23, and the Association's office is to its right, at 31/a.

The useful subway stop is Cavour on Line B, five minutes' walk downhill. Alternatively Colosseum, again Line B, with a 10-minute climb along Via dei Fori Imperiali. Piazza Venezia remains the reference surface hub for those arriving by bus. The car is to be excluded: we are inside the Limited Traffic Zone of the historic center and parking in the surroundings is a fantasy.

On this stretch of road weighs a recent event that is worth knowing before planning anything. On November 3, 2025 the Torre dei Conti, under renovation, suffered a collapse that imposed a red zone and the closure of a whole sector of streets. Reopenings came by degrees: ordinance no. 39 of March 19, 2026 returned to traffic the outer area of the senior center between Via Tor de' Conti and Via della Madonna dei Monti and a one-way vehicle lane from Via dei Fori Imperiali toward Via Cavour, while from March 20, 2026 a portion of roadway on Largo Corrado Ricci toward Via Cavour and the pedestrian passage of Vicolo Tor de' Conti became passable again. From 16:00 on May 6, 2026 the last streets that had remained closed were reopened. What remains closed is a stretch of sidewalk on Largo Corrado Ricci, occupied by the robotic topographic station that monitors the structure. Before setting out it is best to glance at the ordinances in force, because the securing work is still active and pedestrian routes may change.

Who Angelo Stefanucci Was, the Man the Museum Is Named After

Angelo Stefanucci was born in Rome on September 7, 1905 and died on December 7, 1990. He was a stage actor, an animator of Catholic circles, president of the "Splendor San Luigi" Circle at 21, and above all he was the historian who gave the Italian nativity scene a bibliography and an associative structure. In 1944, in a Rome just out of the occupation, he published La Storia del Presepio. In 1955 he collaborated with the scholar Rudolf Berliner on the work Presepio di Natale. He wrote in Italian and foreign newspapers, magazines and media, in an era when the nativity scene was considered a matter for the sacristy and not for art history.

On November 29, 1953 he founded the Associazione Italiana Amici del Presepio, which he chaired until his death, and in the same period the association obtained canonical recognition by decree of Cardinal Luigi Traglia. He founded and financed the quarterly magazine Il Presepio, also taking on its editorship. From John Paul II he received the commendation of the Order of St. Sylvester.

It is worth dwelling on what the work of such a man means in concrete terms. Before Stefanucci the Italian nativity scene existed as a widespread practice and as local craftsmanship, but it had neither a census nor a place where its variants could be compared side by side. A Sicilian terracotta shepherd and a Catalan plaster group had never been seen two meters apart. Stefanucci built that two-meter distance, which is after all the only thing that makes the comparative history of any artifact possible. The museum that bears his name is the material result of that idea, and that is why it is called typological: it was born as a study instrument, and only afterward as a place to visit.

The Associazione Italiana Amici del Presepio, Which Runs the International Nativity Scene Museum "Angelo Stefanucci"

The museum has no personality of its own: it belongs to the Associazione Italiana Amici del Presepio E.T.S., which presents itself as the first Italian association and the first Italian magazine devoted exclusively to the nativity scene, active since 1953. It is registered in the register of legal persons of the Prefecture of Rome with no. 1038/2014 and operates as a third-sector body. It has a board renewed for the 2026/2031 five-year term, an annual membership fee, a five per mille campaign and an online donation collection.

This administrative detail explains everything else, including the discontinuous hours and the current closure. A civic museum opens because a service contract provides that it opens. An association museum opens when there are members available to stay in a basement room on Wednesday and Saturday afternoons. The free offering at the entrance is not a gentle marketing choice: it is the logical consequence of a structure that has no paid staff to cover. Whoever leaves 10 euros in the box contributes to the conservation of pieces that no public budget protects.

The Association also promotes the "Stefanucci" Prize, dedicated to the memory of the founder, and the magazine Il Presepio continues publication. Anyone seriously interested in the subject will find more information by writing to the Association than by searching online: it is an environment of specialists, with a network of master nativity-scene makers across Italy, and the door of access is membership. For a passing visitor the only realistic channel remains a request for a private visit by email or by phone.

The Church of Santi Quirico e Giulitta Above the International Nativity Scene Museum "Angelo Stefanucci"

The container is worth as much as the content, and in this case the container is a millennium and a half old. The church of Santi Quirico e Giulitta dates to the 6th century, in the time of Pope Vigilius, and was originally dedicated to Saints Stephen and Lawrence, with an orientation reversed relative to the present one. In the 8th century it was reconsecrated to the two martyrs of Tarsus to whom it owes its name today: Quirico, a three-year-old child, and his mother Giulitta, killed in the 4th century under Diocletian for not having renounced the faith. It is one of the few Roman dedications to a martyr of infant age, and the coincidence with a nativity scene museum, that is with the place where the birth of a child is told, goes unnoticed by none of those who enter.

Pope Paschal II (1099-1118) wanted the Romanesque bell tower, which can still be seen on the right flank with the bell chamber lightened by triple-arched windows. In 1584 the orientation of the building was inverted. At the beginning of the 1600s Pope Paul V had it raised by about four meters to defend it from humidity and from the floods of the Tiber, an operation that has direct consequences for what we will tell further on. In 1722 Innocent XIII granted it to the Dominicans, who between 1728 and 1735 remade its facade to a design by Filippo Raguzzini: two orders, markedly elongated proportions, one of the less frequented Roman works of an architect who in Rome designed Piazza Sant'Ignazio.

The interior is a single nave, with a quadrangular apse covered by a barrel vault frescoed in 1856 by Pietro Gagliardi with the Glory of Saints Quirico and Giulitta. The high altar, 1600s, holds a canvas with the martyrdom of the titulars. A 1800s altarpiece is by Ercole Ruspi. The pipe organ was built by Pietro Pantanella in 1859 and restored in 2006. The church is the seat of the cardinalate title of Santi Quirico e Giulitta and is today officiated by the friars of the Third Order Regular of St. Francis, as a rectory of the parish of Santa Maria ai Monti. The Masses indicated by the municipal tourist sources are at 19:00 from Monday to Saturday and at 10:00 on Sundays and holidays, but the hours of a rectory change easily and should be confirmed by phone.

The Early Christian Apse Under the International Nativity Scene Museum "Angelo Stefanucci"

Here comes the piece that almost no guide to Rome mentions. On a still lower level than the museum rooms, with access from the museum itself, you can see the small frescoed apse of the original early Christian church, dated to the 6th and 7th centuries. It is not a reconstructed crypt or a space set up for the occasion: it is the bottom of the primitive church, left underneath when the building was raised and reoriented, with its frescoes in the place where they were painted.

The sequence is the classic one of superimposed Roman churches, the same that can be read at Santi Silvestro e Martino ai Monti or, on a much larger scale, at San Clemente: a late antique level buried by a medieval level, and the medieval one buried by a Baroque rebuilding. The particularity of Via Tor de' Conti is that the raising operation wanted by Paul V produced, without meaning to, three naves of usable spaces right under the floor of the church: the same 300 square meters that in 1967 welcomed Stefanucci's collection.

Put bluntly: the International Nativity Scene Museum "Angelo Stefanucci" exists because in the 1600s a pope was afraid of the floods of the Tiber. It is a causal chain three and a half centuries long, and anyone who loves Rome for this kind of concatenation will find it more memorable than many masterpieces. For those who want to see other vertical stratifications in the area, the Domus Romane of Palazzo Valentini and the Crypta Balbi tell the same mechanism with completely different means.

The Collection of the International Nativity Scene Museum "Angelo Stefanucci", Material by Material

The list of materials documented in the collection deserves to be read in full, because it is the real reasoned index of the museum: Lecce papier-mâché, Sicilian terracotta, wood, ceramic, glass, mother-of-pearl, stone, coal, cloth, marzipan, eggs, corn husks. To these are added some Neapolitan statues of the 18th and 19th centuries.

Every item on that list is a school. Lecce papier-mâché is the Salento technique begun in the 1700s by the master Pietro Surgente: paper, glue, plaster and fire, with a lightness that allows large figures without the weight of terracotta. Sicilian terracotta has a tradition that runs through Caltagirone and Trapani, with glazed surfaces and a palette that resembles no other. Wood points to the Alpine arc and the Val Gardena, but also to Bolognese and Ligurian sculpture. Mother-of-pearl and glass are materials of artisan refinement that marry the nativity scene to luxury production. Coal, cloth, corn husks and eggs instead tell the other half of the story: the poor nativity scene, built with what you had at home, which is the oldest and most widespread form of this devotion.

Marzipan deserves a line of its own, because it opens a question of conservation that no painting museum ever faces. An edible nativity scene is an object that degrades on time scales different from marble, and keeping it for decades in a basement environment is a serious technical problem. It is also the reason why a museum of this type, run by an association without stable public funds, lives constantly in a condition of conservation emergency that the distracted visitor does not suspect.

The Oldest Pieces of the International Nativity Scene Museum "Angelo Stefanucci"

Among the oldest works documented by the managing body there are three worth naming one by one.

The first is a nativity scene built with small shells, Sicilian, of the 17th century. It is a genre that belongs to Mediterranean convent culture, where the patient work of applying thousands of tiny elements was also a spiritual exercise. Shells are a poor material and at the same time an exotic one: gathered on the beach, they give pearly surfaces that in the half-light of a chapel produce an effect no gilding can give.

The second is an ivory San Bambino, again of the 17th century. The figure of the Baby Jesus isolated, detached from the narrative context, is an autonomous chapter of Italian and Spanish devotion: think of the Santo Bambino of Santa Maria in Aracoeli, carved in the 1400s by a Franciscan friar from a single block of olive wood from Gethsemane, about 60 centimeters tall, stolen on February 1, 1994 by two men disguised as workmen and never recovered, today replaced by a copy. The ivory kept on Via Tor de' Conti belongs to that same family of objects: images made to be taken in the arms, carried to the sick, kissed.

The third is a series of statues of the 18th-century Bolognese school. Bologna is the tradition in which the figures are carved or modeled entire, clothes included, without the dressed mannequins that dominate the Neapolitan school instead. It is a technical difference that produces a radical aesthetic difference, and it is exactly the kind of comparison that a typological museum exists to make possible.

The Scenographic Nativity Scenes of the International Nativity Scene Museum "Angelo Stefanucci"

Beside the single figures, the museum keeps scenographic nativity scenes, that is complete machines with landscape, architecture, a population of supporting characters. Among these the body's sources point to a large nativity scene in the Neapolitan 1700s style and several works of the Catalan plaster school, as well as works by the best-known Italian and foreign nativity-scene masters.

The Neapolitan nativity scene of the 1700s is the acknowledged summit of the genre in Europe: splendor, spectacle, crowding of figures, urban scenes in which the Nativity occupies a corner and the rest is market, tavern, workshop, beggars, farmyard animals. It is urban theater before devotion, and it is the reason why the Neapolitan nativity scene interests historians of costume as much as those of sacred art. The Catalan plaster school works instead by molds and series, with a pervasive popular diffusion and a quality of modeling that industrialization has not flattened as much as is believed.

The difference between the two traditions can be read in 10 seconds by comparing them: the Neapolitan builds the world around the hut, the Catalan builds the hut and leaves the world outside. In between lie the Genoese school, famous for the minuteness of its materials and for sculptors like Anton Maria Maragliano in the 1700s, and the Bolognese one, which goes back to the 13th century with the full-round figures of the Maestro del Crocifisso. A museum that holds these lines together in 300 square meters provides a service that no temporary exhibition can, because exhibitions last a month and comparison takes time.

The Library, Courses and Lectures of the International Nativity Scene Museum "Angelo Stefanucci"

Attached to the museum, and available on request, are a large library on the nativity-scene theme and a collection of videocassettes and DVDs on exhibitions, technique courses and the history of the nativity scene. In the museum's rooms the Association organizes lectures and, periodically, nativity-scene technique courses taught by qualified masters.

This is the real living heart of the institution, and paradoxically the least visible part to those passing by. The specialist library on such a circumscribed genre is probably the most complete in Italy, and for a scholar of material culture, sacred iconography or regional craftsmanship it represents a resource without equivalent. The technique courses are not recreational workshops: they teach cork, plaster, light handling, the perspective proportions of a backdrop, the construction of a structure that bears the weight without deforming.

Anyone in Rome with a professional interest will do well to write to the Association in advance saying what they are looking for, because access to the library follows different logics from access to the exhibition hall and may be granted even during a closure to the general public. It is a concrete possibility, and worth trying with a precise request instead of a generic message.

Rome and the Nativity Scene, a Story That Begins at Santa Maria Maggiore

To understand why a nativity scene museum makes sense precisely in Rome you have to go back seven centuries. In 1291, on commission from Pope Nicholas IV, Arnolfo di Cambio sculpted in Carrara marble for the basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore the group that art history considers the first known inanimate nativity scene: Saint Joseph, the ox and the donkey, and the three Magi, one kneeling and two standing, carved from a single block. The Madonna with the Child that completes the scene today is a replacement of the second half of the 1500s. The group was placed next to the wooden cradle kept in the oratory of the Nativity, where the basilica preserves the relic of the Holy Crib, later enclosed in the rock-crystal reliquary designed by Giuseppe Valadier in 1802.

Upstream of Arnolfo is the founding episode of the whole story: on Christmas night of 1223, at Greccio, in Sabina, Francis of Assisi obtained from the pope the authorization to stage the representation of the Nativity that tradition considers the first nativity scene in history. From Greccio to Arnolfo's marble 68 years pass. From Arnolfo to Lecce papier-mâché and Neapolitan statues 450 pass. The museum on Via Tor de' Conti stands at the last chapter of this line, the one in which the genre becomes an object of study and of conscious conservation.

The city continues to produce its own chapter every December. The exhibition "100 Presepi in Vaticano", organized by the Dicastery for Evangelization under the left colonnade of St. Peter's Square, in the edition of December 8, 2025 - January 8, 2026 presented 132 nativity scenes from 23 countries with free admission, with materials ranging from Japanese paper to silk, from resin to coconut and banana fiber. Whoever visits the Basilica of St. Peter in that period finds it on the route without having to look for it, and the attendance numbers say that the nativity scene, as a genre, enjoys excellent health.

A Curiosity About the International Nativity Scene Museum "Angelo Stefanucci"

The curiosity that strikes visitors most concerns the list of materials. In this collection there are nativity scenes made of marzipan, of eggs, of corn husks and of coal. These are not isolated extravagances put there to amaze: they are structural entries of a museum that defines itself as typological, that is built to document the variety of techniques even before the quality of the individual specimens.

Coal tells of the mining regions and their working-class devotion. Corn husks point to peasant traditions of northern Italy and Latin America, where the husk is material for weaving before it is for nativity scenes. Eggs, emptied and decorated, belong to a domestic women's culture that rarely enters museums with this dignity. Marzipan brings the Nativity into convent pastry-making, with all that this implies in terms of conservation: a sugary object displayed for decades in a basement environment is a challenge no painting restorer has to face.

Lined up, these four materials say something precise about the Italian nativity scene: it is the only artistic genre in which the poor and the rich have produced masterpieces with the same dignity, and in which the criterion of value has never been the cost of the raw material. A museum that keeps an 18th-century Neapolitan statue three meters from a shell nativity scene makes this statement without writing it on any panel.

Something Nobody Tells You About the International Nativity Scene Museum "Angelo Stefanucci"

Nobody explains that this museum has two doors, and that knowing which one to ring makes the difference between getting in and going home. The main entrance is through the church of Santi Quirico e Giulitta, at Via Tor de' Conti 23, to the left of the Hotel Forum: you enter the church and from there go down. But the church door, which is a rectory and not a parish with continuous opening, stays closed for much of the day. In that case the official instruction is to ring the buzzer of the Associazione Italiana Amici del Presepio at number 31/a, on the right side of the hotel.

The second element that escapes notice is the nature of the body. There is no ticket office, no paid room staff, no call center. There is a third-sector association that opens when it has volunteers available, and that in this phase has suspended ordinary opening while keeping the possibility of arranged private visits. Which means that the winning strategy is not to show up, but to write first to info@museopresepioroma.it or phone +39 06 6796146 proposing two or three alternative dates.

The third element is economic. Entry is by free offering, and it is easy to read this as free of charge. It is not: it means that the cost of conserving 3000 fragile pieces, many of them in perishable materials, falls entirely on donations, membership fees and the five per mille. Whoever comes in and leaves two euros has misunderstood the mechanism.

My Advice for Visiting the International Nativity Scene Museum "Angelo Stefanucci"

The practical advice is just one and should be followed to the letter: write first, with a specific request. An email saying "I would like to visit the museum" gets less than one saying "there are two of us, we'll be in Rome from 14 to 18, we are interested in Lecce papier-mâché and in the early Christian apse below, we are available in any time slot, we can adapt". The difference is not of courtesy, it is of feasibility: whoever reads that message has to find a free volunteer, and the more margin they are left the more likely they are to find one.

Second piece of advice: explicitly ask for access to the frescoed apse of the 6th and 7th centuries, on the lower level. It is the part of the route most easily omitted in a quick visit, and it is the one that a lover of ancient Rome would regret most.

Third piece of advice: choose the right period. The historic ordinary opening excluded July and August, and the Association's activity is concentrated between autumn and Epiphany. A request sent in November finds a body in full season. A request in mid-August finds emptiness.

Fourth: allow for an alternative plan within 300 meters. The Imperial Forums Museum and the Markets of Trajan are five minutes away on foot and have certain hours, as do the Mamertine Prison and San Pietro in Vincoli. No trip to Rome should be built on a museum that opens by appointment, but very few Roman afternoons are better spent than one that manages to include it.

Another Well-Known Fact, Yet Rarely Mentioned

That churches in Rome are layered everyone knows: it is the first fact you learn walking around the city. What is rarely mentioned is the hydraulic mechanism that produced many of those layers, and in this specific case produced the museum.

At the beginning of the 1600s Pope Paul V had the church of Santi Quirico e Giulitta raised by about four meters to protect it from humidity and from the floods of the Tiber. Before the 1800s embankment walls the river overflowed regularly and the valley floor between Campo Marzio, the Forums and the Suburra went under water and mud. Raising the walking level was a standard engineering response, applied to dozens of Roman buildings.

The unintended consequence of that operation is that usable spaces remained under the 1600s floor: three naves, about 300 square meters, dry enough to be adapted. In 1967 it was those spaces that welcomed the collection donated by Angelo Stefanucci, and at a still lower level the frescoed apse of the early Christian church of the 6th and 7th centuries remained visible.

The well-known fact, then, is the layering. The little-mentioned one is that Roman layering is almost never a passive phenomenon of accumulation, but the result of technical decisions made by someone who had a practical problem to solve. A fear of floods, four meters of difference in level, and three and a half centuries later a nativity scene museum.

The Right Photo to Take at the International Nativity Scene Museum "Angelo Stefanucci"

The best photograph, and in this phase the only guaranteed one, is taken from the street. You stand on the opposite sidewalk of Via Tor de' Conti, level with the Hotel Forum, and frame the 1700s facade by Filippo Raguzzini with the 12th-century Romanesque bell tower peeking out on the right flank. The very elongated proportions of the facade work well vertically, and the contrast between the medieval brick of the bell chamber with triple-arched windows and the 1700s plaster is the real subject.

The right light is that of the late afternoon: the street is narrow and in shadow for much of the day, and in the middle hours the contrast between sky and facade becomes unmanageable. Anyone with patience should wait for the moment when the raking sun hits the bell tower leaving the facade in half-light, which is the condition in which the building tells its two times.

Inside, assuming you have obtained the visit, the rule is to ask first. Many figures are in photosensitive or perishable materials and flash is to be excluded on principle, not because of a formal ban. The most photogenic subject is not the large scenographic Neapolitan nativity scene, which demands equipment and distance, but the close-up detail: the pearly surface of the 1600s Sicilian shell nativity scene, the grain of the ivory of the San Bambino, the texture of Lecce papier-mâché in side light. Whoever goes down to the early Christian apse should allow for very scarce light and no possibility of a tripod: it is better to aim for a blurred and true image rather than a sharp and impossible one.

Some Important Events That Happened Here in History

The chronology of this address is long and worth reading in order.

6th century: the church is born, in the time of Pope Vigilius, dedicated to Saints Stephen and Lawrence and oriented the opposite way from today. 8th century: reconsecration to Saints Quirico and Giulitta, the martyrs of Tarsus who died under Diocletian. 1099-1118: Pope Paschal II has the Romanesque bell tower built with the triple-arched bell chamber. 1584: the orientation of the building is inverted. Beginning of the 1600s: Paul V has the church raised by about four meters against humidity and Tiber floods, and without knowing it creates the spaces that will host the museum. 1722: Innocent XIII grants the church to the Dominicans. 1728-1735: rebuilding of the facade to a design by Filippo Raguzzini. 1856: Pietro Gagliardi frescoes the apse vault with the Glory of the titular saints. 1859: Pietro Pantanella builds the pipe organ, later restored in 2006.

November 29, 1953: Angelo Stefanucci founds the Associazione Italiana Amici del Presepio, which receives canonical recognition by decree of Cardinal Luigi Traglia. 1967: the museum is born in the basement of the church, with the donation of Stefanucci's personal collection. December 7, 1990: Stefanucci dies, president of the Association to the last. 2014: registration of the Association in the register of legal persons of the Prefecture of Rome.

November 3, 2025: the collapse of the Torre dei Conti, a few steps from here, imposes a red zone that closes the entire street sector. March 19 and 20, 2026: ordinance no. 39 returns to traffic part of the streets and the pedestrian passage of Vicolo Tor de' Conti. May 6, 2026: the last closed streets reopen, while the structural monitoring of the tower continues.

Who Has Passed by the International Nativity Scene Museum "Angelo Stefanucci"

The first name is obviously Angelo Stefanucci (1905-1990), actor, historian of the nativity scene, founder of the Association and of the magazine Il Presepio, author in 1944 of that Storia del Presepio that remained the reference text for decades, awarded by John Paul II the commendation of the Order of St. Sylvester. The museum was born from his collection and bears his name.

The other names belong to the building that stands above the exhibition rooms, and they are names of weight. Filippo Raguzzini, the architect from Benevento of the early Roman 1700s, designed the facade of Santi Quirico e Giulitta in 1728. Pietro Gagliardi, a Roman painter of the 1800s, frescoed the apse vault in 1856. Ercole Ruspi signed a 1800s altarpiece. Pietro Pantanella, an organ builder active in Rome, built the pipe organ in 1859.

On the ecclesiastical side the list is papal. Vigilius, under whose pontificate the sources place the origin of the church in the 6th century. Paschal II, who wanted the bell tower between 1099 and 1118. Paul V, who at the start of the 1600s had it raised by four meters. Innocent XIII, who in 1722 entrusted it to the Dominicans. Today the church is officiated by the friars of the Third Order Regular of St. Francis, as a rectory of the parish of Santa Maria ai Monti, and is the seat of a cardinalate title.

To these is added the anonymous and continuous line of Italian and foreign master nativity-scene makers who have donated their own works to the collection: most of the pieces arrived this way, not by purchase but as gifts from the makers.

When It Is Worth Trying to Visit the International Nativity Scene Museum "Angelo Stefanucci"

The seasonality of this museum is marked and must be respected. The historic ordinary schedule, Wednesday and Saturday from 17:00 to 19:30, excluded July and August: two months in which the building stays closed by established practice. In a phase of temporary closure like the current one, the seasonality transfers to the probability of obtaining a private visit, and the curve is the same.

The best period is late autumn and Advent, from the end of November to Epiphany. It is the moment when the Association works at full capacity, when the lectures and the nativity-scene technique courses are held, when the nativity scene returns to the center of public attention and when, as a consequence, it is more likely that someone will answer email and find a volunteer to accompany you.

The worst period is full summer, for identical and opposite reasons. Between May and September it is best to allow for silence, not take it personally and reschedule.

One last consideration on the time of day: the 17:00-19:30 band was not random. It is the time when the church above opens for the 19:00 evening Mass, therefore the time when the door at Via Tor de' Conti 23 is most likely to be ajar. Anyone in the area in the late afternoon who wants to try without an appointment has in that window their best chance, though without any guarantee.

What to See Around the International Nativity Scene Museum "Angelo Stefanucci"

Few Roman addresses have a density of alternatives like this one. In 150 meters you reach the Museo dei Fori Imperiali, set up since 2007 inside the Markets of Trajan, which is probably the best-preserved Roman building in the city outside the Pantheon. Going down toward Largo Corrado Ricci and Piazza del Grillo you pass the House of the Knights of Rhodes and reach the Mamertine Prison at the foot of the Capitoline Hill.

Going back up Via Cavour, in five minutes you are at San Pietro in Vincoli with Michelangelo's Moses, and continuing you reach Santi Silvestro e Martino ai Monti, which like Santi Quirico e Giulitta preserves structures of late antique date beneath it. On the opposite side of the valley the Colosseum, the Palatine and the Domus Aurea close off the quadrant.

For those who want to stay on the theme of urban layering, the Crypta Balbi on Via delle Botteghe Oscure is the clearest lesson Rome knows how to give on the passage from antiquity to the Middle Ages, while the Domus Romane of Palazzo Valentini tell it with projections and reconstructions. For the history of the modern city there remain the Museo di Roma at Palazzo Braschi and, on the other bank of the Tiber, the Vatican Museums.

Quick Questions About the International Nativity Scene Museum "Angelo Stefanucci"

Is the International Nativity Scene Museum "Angelo Stefanucci" Open?

No. The official site states that the museum is temporarily closed and invites you to contact the Association for any private visits. It is the first thing to check before setting out.

Where Exactly Is the International Nativity Scene Museum "Angelo Stefanucci"?

In the basement of the church of Santi Quirico e Giulitta, at the Imperial Forums. The entrance is through the church at Via Tor de' Conti 23, 00184 Rome, to the left of the Hotel Forum. The Association's address is Via Tor de' Conti 31/a, on the right side of the hotel.

How Much Is the Ticket for the International Nativity Scene Museum "Angelo Stefanucci"?

There is no ticket. Entry is by free offering, and the Association explicitly asks for a contribution, even a small one, to support the conservation of the collection.

What Were the Ordinary Hours of the Museum?

Wednesday and Saturday from 17:00 to 19:30, with closure in the months of July and August and guided visits also on other days and at other times by appointment. They are the reference hours under normal conditions, now suspended.

How Do You Book a Private Visit?

By writing to info@museopresepioroma.it or phoning +39 06 6796146. It is best to indicate number of people, a wide window of dates and specific interests, because availability depends on the Association's volunteers.

Who Runs the International Nativity Scene Museum "Angelo Stefanucci"?

The Associazione Italiana Amici del Presepio E.T.S., founded on November 29, 1953 by Angelo Stefanucci and registered in the register of legal persons of the Prefecture of Rome with no. 1038/2014.

When Was the Museum Founded?

In 1967, with the donation of a large part of the personal collection of Angelo Stefanucci, then president and founder of the Association.

How Many Pieces Are in the Collection?

More than 3000, from all the Italian regions and from dozens of nations, spread over about 300 square meters divided into three naves.

What Does "Typological" Mean in the Official Name of the Museum?

It means that the collection is ordered by type, that is by material, technique and origin, with the aim of documenting the variety of solutions more than selecting masterpieces. The full name is Museo tipologico internazionale del presepio "Angelo Stefanucci".

What Are the Oldest Pieces?

A Sicilian nativity scene built with small shells of the 17th century, an ivory San Bambino of the same century and a series of statues of the 18th-century Bolognese school.

What Materials Are the Displayed Nativity Scenes Made Of?

Lecce papier-mâché, Sicilian terracotta, wood, ceramic, glass, mother-of-pearl, stone, coal, cloth, marzipan, eggs and corn husks, as well as some Neapolitan statues of the 18th and 19th centuries.

Can You See the Apse of the Early Christian Church?

Yes, when the museum is accessible: on a still lower level, with access from the museum itself, you can see the small frescoed apse of the original church of the 6th and 7th centuries. It is best to ask for it explicitly when arranging the visit.

Does the International Nativity Scene Museum "Angelo Stefanucci" Accept the MIC Card or the Roma Pass?

No. It is not a civic or state museum, but a private collection of a third-sector body housed in an ecclesiastical building, so the cards of public circuits have no validity.

Is There a Library You Can Consult?

Yes, attached to the museum, with a large collection on the nativity-scene theme and a collection of videocassettes and DVDs on exhibitions, technique courses and the history of the nativity scene. Consultation is on request.

Are Courses Held at the International Nativity Scene Museum "Angelo Stefanucci"?

In the museum's rooms lectures on the nativity scene are organized and, periodically, nativity-scene technique courses taught by qualified masters. The calendar goes through the Association.

How Do You Get There by Public Transport?

Subway Line B, Cavour stop five minutes away on foot or Colosseo 10 minutes away going up Via dei Fori Imperiali. Piazza Venezia is the reference for surface buses.

Can You Get to Via Tor de' Conti by Car?

Better not. We are inside the Limited Traffic Zone of the historic center and parking is in practice impossible. Anyone arriving by car should leave the vehicle at a park-and-ride on Line B.

Does the Collapse of the Torre dei Conti Affect Access?

The collapse of November 3, 2025 had imposed a red zone with closure of the surrounding streets. Reopenings were ordered in stages between March 19 and 20, 2026 and May 6, 2026, but a stretch of sidewalk on Largo Corrado Ricci remains closed for the structural monitoring station and the work continues.

Can You Visit the Church of Santi Quirico e Giulitta?

It is a rectory of the parish of Santa Maria ai Monti officiated by the friars of the Third Order Regular of St. Francis. The municipal tourist sources indicate Masses at 19:00 from Monday to Saturday and at 10:00 on Sundays and holidays, but the hours should be confirmed by phoning 06 69797832.

How Much Time Do You Need for the Visit?

300 square meters are covered quickly, but the collection is made of tiny details and whoever really stops takes a good hour. With the apse below and a guide from the Association you easily exceed 90 minutes.

Is It a Visit Suitable for Children?

Very much so. Miniature nativity scenes, animals, unusual materials like eggs and corn husks work very well with the little ones, and the reduced size avoids the fatigue of big museums. The space is underground and has stairs, so strollers have to be left outside.

Where Can You See the First Nativity Scene in Art History in Rome?

At Santa Maria Maggiore. The group sculpted by Arnolfo di Cambio in 1291 on commission from Nicholas IV in Carrara marble is considered the first known inanimate nativity scene: it includes Saint Joseph, the ox, the donkey and the three Magi, while the Madonna with the Child is a replacement of the second half of the 1500s.

What Is the Relationship Between This Museum and Greccio?

Greccio, in Sabina, is the place where Francis of Assisi staged in 1223 the representation of the Nativity considered the first nativity scene in history. The museum on Via Tor de' Conti keeps the outcome of that tradition 800 years later, in its countless regional and national variants.

Is There an Alternative if the Museum Stays Closed During My Trip?

In the Christmas period the exhibition "100 Presepi in Vaticano", set up by the Dicastery for Evangelization under the left colonnade of St. Peter's Square, has free admission and presents more than 100 works from dozens of countries. In the edition of December 8, 2025 - January 8, 2026 the nativity scenes on display were 132, from 23 nations.

The Last Word on the International Nativity Scene Museum "Angelo Stefanucci"

Rome has museums you visit and museums you earn. This one belongs to the second category, and not out of snobbery: it belongs to the second category because it requires a well-written email, a bit of flexibility on dates and the willingness to accept a no. In exchange it offers 300 square meters under a church of the 6th century, 3000 objects that no other Italian institution holds together, a frescoed early Christian apse at the lowest level and, almost always, the company of someone who has dedicated a substantial part of their life to that collection.

The temporary closure in progress is bad news and it is best to say it first, as was done. But it is also the kind of reversible closure that depends on a few people, and a few people can be persuaded. If you pass through Via Tor de' Conti, look at least at Raguzzini's facade and Paschal II's bell tower, and remember that four meters under your feet there is a ship of nativity scenes in the dark, waiting for someone to turn on the light. Then write that email: the worst possible answer is no answer, and it costs nothing.

Article written by the editorial team of TourLeaderPro, contact them for Private/Corporate/V.I.P. Tours and Experiences.

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