From October 9, 2025, to January 19, 2026, Villa Medici will present the exhibition Shared Holy Places: A Journey Between Religions, conceived and co-produced by the French Academy in Rome, Villa Medici, the Mucem (Museum of Civilisations of Europe and the Mediterranean – Marseille), and the French Embassy to the Holy See – Pious Establishments of France in Rome and Loreto.
The exhibition will explore how multiple religious communities have coexisted throughout history, and will feature artists, architects and creative talents including Gentile da Fabriano, David Sauveur, Elliott Erwitt, Le Corbusier, Chagall among other luminaries. The show brings together major works from French, Italian, and Vatican collections with exceptional loans from the Vatican Museums, the Museo ebraico di Roma, the Louvre and the Mucem and more.
Historical treasures will be placed in dialogue with contemporary works. The show aims to illuminate, through the works on view, a religious phenomenon in the Mediterranean that is at once little-known and complex: sanctuaries shared by people of different faiths and how these communities intersect.
Founded in 1666 by Louis XIV, the French Academy in Rome – Villa Medici has been housed since 1803 in a 16th-century villa surrounded by a seven-hectare park on the Pincian Hill, in the heart of Rome. It’s a stunning venue. A national public institution under the authority of the French Ministry of Culture, the French Academy in Rome – Villa Medici carries out three complementary missions today: hosting high-level artists, creators, and art historians for long-term (one year) or short-term residencies; developing a cultural and artistic program that spans all fields of the arts and creation, aimed at a wide audience; and preserving, restoring, studying, and promoting its architectural and landscape heritage as well as its collections. The French Academy in Rome – Villa Medici is currently directed by Sam Stourdzé.
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Images: Daniele Molajoli and Rayan Yasmineh, Ur Salim, 2022, oil on canvas, 150 x 150 cm, Dollo – Paulin Collection, Paris.
ART IS ALIVE 