Since its reopening in 2022, the Freising Diocesan Museum on the Domberg has developed into one of the most exciting places for cultural encounters in Bavaria. It sees itself not only as a treasure house of ecclesiastical art, but also as a forum in which history, faith and the present resonate. With around 50,000 objects - from early Christian art to Baroque splendor and contemporary positions - the museum combines an awareness of tradition with an openness to current questions about meaning, beauty and identity.
The three major exhibitions in the coming autumn are exemplary of how multi-layered this dialog is: from the divine order of the Renaissance to the Baroque understanding of the world and contemporary cosmology in painting.
With this triad of Renaissance, Baroque and contemporary art, the Diözesanmuseum Freising achieves a rare balance: it looks back without freezing - and at the same time opens up space for new spiritual and aesthetic experiences. Between faith and knowledge, earth and cosmos, past and future, art here becomes a medium of connection.
The Domberg, once a symbol of ecclesiastical power, thus becomes a place of dialog - between times, disciplines and people.

DIVINE! Masterpieces of the Italian Renaissance
With the exhibition "Divine!", the Diözesanmuseum Freising is dedicating itself to perhaps the most momentous period of upheaval in Europe: the Renaissance. In 65 masterpieces by Botticelli, Bellini, Lippi and Mantegna, the moment in which mankind re-positioned itself between heaven and earth unfolds. The gaze that was previously directed towards the transcendent is now focused on this world - and discovers the divine in the earthly.
The exhibition shows how painting became the medium of a spiritual revolution: How perspective, physicality and emotion became vehicles for a new realization of the self. In the catalog, Cardinal Reinhard Marx emphasizes the parallels to the present - a time in which digitalization, artificial intelligence and a flood of information are once again transforming our perception. As then, the question remains today: what remains of the image of man when his boundaries dissolve?
"Divine!" invites us to look at this question through the eyes of the great Renaissance artists - and to recognize ourselves in the mirror of their works.
September 20, 2025 to January 11, 2026

Andrea Mantegna (Isola di Carturo 1431 - Mantua 1506), The Redeemer, Correggio, 1493, Tempera on canvas, Correggio, Museo "Il Correggio" © Proprietà del Comune di Correggio (RE)

Window into the Landscape - The Views of Valentin Gappnigg
A completely different but equally fascinating perspective on the relationship between the world and perception is opened up by the exhibition "Window into the Landscape", which pays tribute to the Baroque veduta painter Valentin Gappnigg. Between 1696 and 1702, he was commissioned by Prince-Bishop Johann Franz Eckher to create 32 views of Freising Abbey - fine tempera paintings that capture the places of the diocese in their topographical accuracy and poetic grace.
These paintings, once installed in the royal corridor between the residence and St. Mary's Cathedral, were more than mere ornamentation: they formed a visual memory of Freising, an expression of episcopal power as well as an early love of the landscape.
Today, over three centuries later, they appear as precious testimonies to an era in which art and cartography, power and contemplation were inextricably interwoven.
September 20, 2025 to January 11, 2026

Waidhofen an der Ybbs, gouache on paper, mounted on canvas, Freising, Diözesanmuseum Freising © Diözesanmuseum Freising, photo Walter Bayer

Judith Milberg - Imagine all the Pieces
With the exhibition "Imagine all the Pieces", the museum takes us back to the present - and at the same time to the origin of all existence. Munich-based artist Judith Milberg takes the viewer on a journey through time and matter, inspired by science, philosophy and myth. In her large-format works in pigmented ink and pastel on wood, microcosm and macrocosm, big bang and cell division, becoming and passing away come together.
Her paintings glow from the depths like organic fields of energy - vibrant, physical and at the same time imbued with a meditative calm. Milberg understands painting as a form of wonder, as an attempt to make the infinite connection of things visible. Works such as Golden Origin, Excavation or Beyond Species reflect an existential curiosity that is comforting in times of global crisis: Everything is part of a greater whole.
September 20, 2025 to January 11, 2026
www.dimu-freising.de