St. Mungo Museum of Religious Life and Art

A well known religious museum in Glasgow is the St. Mungo Museum of Religious Life and Art. It is famous for being the world’s only public museum solely devoted to this topic.

Made open to the public in 1993, the museum is housed in Cathedral Square, just off High Street on property owned by the Glasgow Cathedral. The museum was built near the site of the Glasgow Archbishop’s diocese complex of castles from the Middle Ages, some of it can be viewed within the Cathedral and at Glasgow Green at the Peoples Palace Museum. St. Mungo was design in a medieval style so as to blend in with the Provands Lordship House which is very nearby.

The St. Mungo Museum of Religious Life and Art boasts of a wide array of exhibits that showcase the major religions of the world. This includes a Zen garden and an Islamic sculpture covered in Moorish calligraphy. It once had in its collection Salvador Dalí’s painting of Christ and of Saint John ofthe Cross while the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum was undergoing refurbishment.

Just a stone’s throw is Glasgow’s oldest house, the Provand’s Lordship, as well as the Glasgow Necropolis and the Glasgow Royal Infirmary.