Acceglio’s Annunziata confraternity has hosted the Upper Maira Valley Museum of Sacred Art since 1998. The exterior, with its façade culminating in a bell gable, is the outcome of a series of different architectural periods and pictorial decorations that time has almost erased. The museum was founded to protect an area at risk of depopulation and loss of cultural heritage, and is promoted by the local parish church of Maria Vergine Assunta. The restoration and selection of exhibits was undertaken in partnership with the tasked superintendencies, Piedmont Regional Authority, the Diocese of Saluzzo, and Acceglio Municipal Authority.
Once inside the 18th-century door, visitors see the nave furnished with showcases containing liturgical vestments that evoke the presence of the clergy, guiding the eye to the altar with its remarkable painted, gilded stuccoes and Annunciation altarpiece dating from the mid-17th century, as well as a 15th-century fresco of the Pietà, reminiscent of the style of the Biazaci brothers of Busca. The layout takes into account the original use of the building and seeks to preserve the signs of the centuries when these spaces were dedicated to worship and meeting. Highlights of the collections include a rare 15th-century miniature and three altarpieces by Vittorio Amedeo Rapous, datable to the 1760s, painted for Acceglio’s Cappuccini church, suppressed in 1802, from which the painting by Jean Claret commissioned by the Taffini family, feudal lords of Savigliano, also hails. The exhibition rooms added with the extension commenced in 2000 include one dedicated to local worship and another to house the works of Acceglio painter Matteo Olivero (1879–1932).