In Piazza San Carlo, Varallo hosts a small yet unique museum: the Casa Museo Cesare Scaglia, located inside the very building where the painter lived and worked.
Cesare Scaglia was an introspective, technical, and passionate artist who expressed through painting a deep bond with nature and the surrounding mountain landscape. He loved to work “en plain air”, setting up his easel directly in the places that inspired him. During his career, he also served as Director of the Sacro Monte, actively contributing to the promotion of Valsesian artistic culture.
The house museum was created by his daughter Aida, who, upon her father’s death, transformed his studio into an exhibition space in his memory. As stipulated in her will, the museum was donated to the Municipality of Varallo, which, after a period of closure, managed to reopen it in 2005, restoring to the city an important fragment of its cultural heritage.
The exhibition unfolds across three rooms, maintaining the original arrangement chosen by Aida. These spaces display works and objects related to the artist’s life; paintings, furniture, furnishings, books and jewellery; providing visitors with a vivid sense of an era which the visitor can immediately perceive. Of particular interest are the 16th century frescoes preserved on the ground floor and the permanent model exhibition design by Carlo Vietti.
Visiting the Scaglia Museum means taking a step back in the past into a place that returns to Varallo the memory of its traditions and its connection with a figure who knew how to portray them with sensitivity and dedication.