The building that houses the museum was built in 1907 by the Palermo architect Ernesto Basile as part of an urban redevelopment plan to create a new access to the city.
First used as a primary school, in 1958 it became the seat of the Municipal Library, then it was restored and in 2007 it became the seat of the museum.
The exhibition is a tribute to the ancient and prestigious tradition of Caltagirone nativity cribs in ceramics and terracotta, still carried on today by local craftsmen, and is embellished by the “Luigi Colaleo Collection”, a lawyer of Calatino origin who collected about a thousand ancient and modern cribs from America, Asia, Africa, and Europe.
Italian nativity scenes represent different stylistic traditions, including the ones from Calatino, Naples and Apulia.
Sicilian cribs are generally divided into different types: popular or cultured, ancient or contemporary and artistic.
