The Podrecca-Signorelli
International Centre
A unique exhibition space in the Monastery complex, unparalleled in Europe, hosts the marionettes of Vittorio Podrecca and the puppets of Maria Signorelli.
A native of Cividale, Vittorio Podrecca emerged as the greatest Italian theatre manager and director of a marionette company celebrated across the world, while also establishing himself as a renowned artist and intellectual.
Maria Signorelli, too, was an artist and intellectual, as well as a set designer and an extraordinary collector. Here visitors encounter a selection of the items that best capture the spirit of her vast collection of more than two thousand pieces: hand puppets, marionettes, Sicilian and Neapolitan pupi, stage backdrops, scripts, toy theatres, and evocative figures from the world of Asian theatre. These works, dating from the 1700s to the 1900s, are protected by the Italian Ministry of Culture.
The Theatre of Wonders is innovative in its design and narrates both the history of Vittorio Podrecca’s century‑old Compagnia dei Piccoli and the eclectic personality of Maria Signorelli. It offers a fantastical yet scholarly journey into the theatre of puppets and animated figures in Italy and across the world.
