The Treasure Museum is located inside the picturesque collegiate church of San Lorenzo, a complex dating back to the 5th century. The arcade was made between the 17th and 18th century with the aim of delimiting the cemetery and for creating an area for processions. The sixteenth-century bell tower overlooks the collegiate; over the portal architrave there is the Chiavenna’s coat of arms. From the arcade we reach the Baptistery: the font, obtained from a sole block of pot-stone, dates back to 1156. The basin is decorated with a relief describing the Holy Saturday ceremony. 
 

The museum conserves a wide stock of sacred paraments and furniture and a very rare musical code of the 11th century. The main piece: the “Peace of Chiavenna”, an eleventh-century evangeliary cover of embossed gold, gems and precious miniatures, a masterpiece of the medieval goldsmith’s art: 23 gold leaves mounted on a walnut table. The symbols of the evangelists and the Latin inscription “Those who have made or have commissioned such a work of art shall live in Christ and shall obtain His reign from Him” (Vivano in Cristo e ottengano per mezzo suo il regno coloro che hanno fatto o fatto fare un’opera così”) are embossed. According to tradition, a German or French bishop donated it to Chiavenna: probably Cristiano of Mainz, who in 1176 escorted the Barbarossa to Chiavenna. 

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