The history of the “Museo dei Capuccini”, the Museum of the Capuchin Friars, has its roots in the previous “Museo di Vita Cappuccina” founded by Father Cassiano da Langasco in 1978. Father Cassiano sought to represent his ideal of Capuchin life in this collection of artefacts, documents and narratives of custom, furnishings and daily life in the monasteries. In 2004 the Province of Genoa of the Friars Minor Capuchin decided to modernise the structure while remaining faithful to Father Cassiano's idea, transforming it into a continually evolving museum.
The modern Museo dei Cappuccini preserves, promotes and shows to the public the historical-artistic, ethnographic, archival and bibliographic heritage of the Capuchins through temporary exhibitions, focusing not only on Capuchin life, but also on the history and art of the area. It also displays a permanent collection in the historic spaces of the building: in the large stairway designed in 1772 by Gaetano Cantoni and in the Deposito di Santa Caterina da Genova (the upper chapel of the church, where the incorrupt body of Saint Catherine from Genova is preserved, works by artists such as Bernardo Strozzi, Domenico Fiasella, Luca Cambiaso, Orazio De Ferrari, Giovanni Battista Paggi, and Domenico Piola can be admired.