About BeWeB

BeWeB - Online ecclesiastical heritage, is a showcase displaying the systematic census-taking carried out by Italian dioceses and ecclesiastical cultural institutions on their self-owned holdings belonging to their historical, artistic, archival, and library assets. It allows broader, non-specialist audiences to understand and interpret the heritage of dioceses through news and resource sharing, as well as by providing a specific focus on selected themes.

The aim of this portal is to increasingly work as a distributed newsroom involving dioceses and the entire Church, in order to provide different ways to interpret the Church’s heritage in addition to traditional ones, also considering pastoral, catechetical, liturgical, and theological aspects.

Cross domain data access is made easier through different search options, such as google like, local area, and chronological searches and, finally, through higher qualified Authority File searches (individuals, entities, families).

Our data base is mostly implemented by dioceses and cultural institutions that have finished surveying and describing their local heritage and are now busy updating and integrating their data. Hence, what is being published here should be considered as a work in progress and, therefore, open to suggestions to make it better and more effective. As the Italian Bishops’ Conference National Office for Ecclesiastical Cultural Heritage receives updated data bases, it replaces the ones that had been published until that time.

BeWeB is also a tool to interact with public authorities and their information systems. For this reason, agreements and conventions have been signed to ensure data visibility on BeWeB also in theRegistry (spaziatura) of Italian Libraries , in National Library Service and in Manus online coordinated by the Central Institute for Italian Libraries’ Single Catalogue and Bibliographical Data (ICCU), in Material Evidence of Incunabula coordinated by the Consortium of European Research Libraries (CERL), nel National Archive System coordinated by the Central Archive Institute (ICAR), in Places of Culture set up by the Ministry for Cultural Heritage and Activities and Tourism (MiBACT). We are currently studying how to improve dialogue with the General Catalogue Information System (SIGECweb) coordinated by the Central Institute for Catalogue and Documentation (ICCD) and with CulturaItalia, a project which is directly coordinated by MiBACT.


Indepth BeWeB

A. Belfiore, F.M. D’Agnelli, V. Pennasso, and S. Tichetti, The BeWeB Portal: a Virtual Service for Italian Ecclesiastical Libraries, in "Theological Libraries and Library Associations in Europe", Brill, 2022, p. 318–332

Francesca Maria D'Agnelli – Silvia Gallarato – Maria Teresa Rizzo, "Istituti culturali ecclesiastici: una visione generativa, inclusiva, sostenibile e prospettica". DigItalia Anno XIV, Numero 2 (2019), p. 62-86

Francesca Maria D'Agnelli - Maria Teresa Rizzo, Raccontare il patrimonio religioso: identità ed etica nella restituzione sul portale Beweb, in "Nessuno poteva aprire il libro... Miscellanea di studi e testimonianze per i settant'anni di fr. Silvano Danieli – OSM", a cura di Mauro Guerrini, Università degli Studi di Firenze, 2019, pp. 113-130

Francesca Maria D'Agnelli "Di nuovo BeWeB… BeWeB nuovo!". In Storie fuori serie, convegno sugli archivi storici ecclesiastici, Roma - Archivio Centrale dello Stato, 27 novembre 2017

P.G. Weston, F. D’Agnelli, S. Tichetti, C. Guerrieri and M.T. Rizzo, “Gli Authority data e l'intersezione cross - domain nei portali ad aggregazione. Il portale BeWeB”. JLIS.it 8.1, (January 2017),p. 1-30

“Gli authority data per l'integrazione cross-domain dei beni culturali: riflessioni su un approccio alla lettura trasversale dei beni culturali della Chiesa cattolica italiana”, a cura del Gruppo di lavoro sugli authority file dell'Ufficio per i beni culturali ecclesiastici e l'edilizia di culto della CEI, in AIB studi, Vol 57, N.1 (gennaio/febbraio 2017), p. 106-108

R. G. Rizzo, L. S. Rizzo, “Il patrimonio religioso in Italia: siti web e geolocalizzazione. Una nuova valutazione”. Bollettino AIC 2015 (154), p. 121-136

S. Russo, “BeWeb. The cross portal of cultural ecclesiastical heritage.” JLIS.it 5.2, (Luglio/July 2014), p.147-157

G. Caputo, “Il portale dei beni culturali ecclesiastici BeWeb”. DigItalia 8.2 (Dicembre 2013), p. 108-116.


Video - Il portale BeWeB