Collection of alms boxes
Collection of alms boxes
This room exhibits a unique collection made up of 30 boxes and chapels intended to contain the alms of the faithful. Most were designed as a wooden box, with an upper lid with a small cut to insert the coins, and a back plate that, like an altarpiece, houses a religious figure in relief or painted. In many cases, they have a handle that allowed the gatherer to approach the faithful while showing the image.
The iconography is diverse regarding the saints, but one of the most recurring themes was that of the souls in purgatory, which represent the deceased in flames in transit between the heavenly paradise and hell. The income collected by these boxes was used to pay for masses that, together with the prayers of the faithful, could help the souls of the dead enter definitively into the kingdom of heaven.