The first nucleus of the museum collection was collected in the first post-war period in order to preserve and protect the many and valuable artworks from the 12th to the 19th centuries coming from the Cathedral and other worship places in the territory,  after escaping the bombing destruction suffered by the City of Ortona during the second world war.

On May 3rd 1980, in occasion of the solemn celebrations for Saint Thomas the Apostle’s ‘perdono’ festival, the structure was opened as Museum of the Cathedral and only after subsequent works of restoration and reorganization, in 2003 it was recognised as a branch of the Lanciano –Ortona Diocesan Museum.

The pieces kept here, exhibited in three large areas that, in the past centuries, used to be occupied by three Chapels connected to the main church, represent in a peculiar way the artistic and cultural level reached by Ortona in the course of its history; but above all, they actually testify to the will to defend and protect one’s own cultural heritage to the advantage of future generations, even in  the most terrible disasters as the destruction the City underwent in December 1943.