Civic Museum of Crema

It was founded in 1960 in what had been a 15th-century Augustinian cloister. There are sections for archeology, history and art.
The museum is housed in the former convent of Sant'Agostino, founded in 1439 and centered around the two Renaissance cloisters. A wing of the second cloister is occupied by the large refectory painted in 1507 by the painter Pietro da Cemmo. In 1797, the Autonomous Municipality of Crema, born following the constitution of the Cisalpine Republic, suppressed the convent and turn the complex into a hospital. Soon after, it changed its destination again, becoming a barracks.
In 1945 the barracks was decommissioned and the area, owned by the State, was given in use to the City of Crema, which used it temporarily as a warehouse and shelter for homeless and displaced people because of the conflict. Only in 1959 the Municipality managed to acquire the building and to start, under the direction of the architect Amos Edallo, important redevelopment works, in order to allocate the former convent to a cultural use. In addition to the new Civic Museum, the building also housed for many years the Municipal Library, now moved to the Palazzo Benzoni.

Wikipedia