Museo del Carro

The Museo del Carro (Chariot Museum) is located in Mirabella Eclano, inside the monumental complex of Saint Francis.

Founded in 1222, it also houses the Town Hall and the Museum of Mysteries in papier-mâché. The complex consists of the buildings of the Convent Church, the former Oratory and the open spaces of the square with the obelisk, cloister and garden. 
The portal of the Church is from the 18th century, as are the wooden sculptures and the pipe organ inside. The Church has a single nave with a vaulted ceiling, while niches containing altars and statues of saints open up on the side wings. Since the 19th century, the Franciscan monastery has changed its use, becoming both a municipal house and a museum complex.

Open to the public since 2005, the Chariot Museum is located on the first floor of the monumental complex of Saint Francis. Some of the original parts of the seven registers that make up the Mirabella Eclano Chariot are on display, a fascinating 25-metre-high work, entirely covered in woven straw panels, the result of the work of skilled craftsmen who, for more than a century, have been taking care of the "straw jewel". 
In the Museum there is also a permanent exhibition of photographs illustrating the history of the chariot from its first design in 1869 through the main stages of its construction to the most significant moment of the "dragging".

A place of great cultural importance for the community of Mirabella, the Chariot Museum traces the historical evolution of a work that is part of the broader and more varied tradition of straw carts and lilies.