The museum opened in 1900 to preserve some of the artistic heritage of the Sanctuary of Santa Maria del Monte, on the summit of the Sacro Monte of Varese, a Unesco World Heritage site since 2003. Later on the Museum has enriched its heritage thanks to new donations. The most important was the one made by Joseph Baroffio Dall'Aglio who gave the Sanctuary also the money to build the current home. The latest restoration, completed in 2001, widened the exhibition space and enhanced the collections. In eight rooms, including old rooms with rests of frescoes, there are works that tell the history and the art of the Sacro Monte, while the Baroffio picture gallery provides a path among Flemish, Dutch, Lombard, Venetian and Emilian paintings ranging from the 15th to the 18th century. The modern room hosts around sixty works of artists of the 20th century.

In all the museums of the world it is forbidden to touch, in this no. Because knowing through touch is a fantastic opportunity to understand the world and art, even for all those who see, that can doing blindfolded visits, and it is a way to allow people who do not see us to know about art through hands. This museum houses a collection of wooden tactile models which, like a three-dimensional encyclopedia to be browsed with hands, reproduce aspects of the landscape, archeology and architecture. There are also multi-sensory paths and installations, in which the visitor can check how the senses speak a special language capable of making us better understand all aspects of reality. The world becomes a kaleidoscope of possibilities, which asks to be "heard" with all the senses: fun aspects and new forms of knowledge of reality, monuments and tactile games, sensory emotions and art, teaching and experimentation.