HISTORY
The monastery was probably already built in a place called Monte Giardino by the 11th century, and is documented at least by 1073. In addition to the Romanesque church of the 12th century, the choir shows traces of an earlier building. The church was later consecrated by the Bishop Giovanni IV in 1178, while in 1241, chronicles report that the Bishop Henry II della Fratta wanted to retire at the monastery and end his life in prayer and poverty. The complex seems to have originated as a hermitage, later becoming an Abbey affiliated with the Regular Lateran canons, and remained thus until the suppressions of 1798. In 1892, under the control of the Ministry of Public Instruction, the secularized building was given back to the Church, who reopened it. A major restoration campaign was begun in 1914, which partially cleaned up, partially restored the Romanesque identity of the religious buildings, the cloister and the monastery.
ART-HISTORICAL NOTES
The plan of the church is a single nave, and formerly had a squared apse, prior to its destruction in the 19th-century. The beautiful Romanesque church is divided into two parts by an imposing choir screen, lightened in the upper story by two loggias, each consisting of four arches. The screen demarcated the inferior church, reserved for the parishioners, from the superior church, reserved for the canons. The cloister was completed, as were several of the contiguous monastic buildings, in the 15th century. San Vittore preserves some of the most important 13th-century frescoes of the region. They were removed from the walls in the 1960s and installed on panels on the walls of the church. Some of the frescoes are hidden by the 15th-century wooden choir, which occupies three sides of the superior church (north, west, south).
The complex of Santo Stefano is composed of an ensemble of chapels, churches and associated monastery, known together as the “Sette Chiese” (seven churches). According to a legend, Santo Stefano was founded by San Petronio, the Bishop of Bologna between 431/432 and 450, who is buried there. The story reports that following a pilgrimage in the Holy Land, he founded a group of buildings destined to reproduce the sites of Christ’s Passion. Despite the legend, the first written record of the complex is not until the 9th century, in a diploma of Charles the Fat.
The various components of the complex date to different epochs. The church dedicated to the Holy Sepulcher was possibly a Roman temple dedicated to Isis, later transformed into a church with an edicola inside containing the relics of San Petronio. Where today the church of the Trinity is found, at the end of the 4th century was the area of a walled Christian cemetery. The church of San Giovanni Battista (today called the Crocifisso (crucifix), is instead probably of Lombard foundation, as the so-called basin of Pilate would attest, which contains an inscription referencing Kings Liutprand and Hildebrand, who reigned together from 736 to 744.
The beginning of the 11th century was a moment of great splendor for the complex, when the Abbot Martino built a crypt in the church of San Giovanni Battista, and on March 3, 1019 he translated the bodies of Saints Vitale and Agricola. At that date, the monastery probably already contained the structures that exist today: the curch of San Giovanni, the church dedicated today to Saints Vitale and Agricola, and the church of the Trinity.
HISTORY
In the hilly area around Bologna, atop the hill of San Benedetto, close to the hill “dell’Osservanza,” is the early-19th-century Neoclassical villa commissioned by Antonio Aldini, and today dedicated to the Napoleonic Ministry. The construction of the villa was the partial result of the dismantling of the preexisting buildings from the religious complex of the Madonna del Monte. In 1938, Guido Zucchini, who had studied the complex for years, researching the structures preceding the 19th-century upheaval, took apart the wall of the former circular dining room, exposing niches with extraordinary Byzantine frescoes. Following the restorations to the Romanesque building, in 1939, Zucchini published a detailed monograph of the complex’s history and artistic events. According to Zucchini, evidence of the Rotonda’s foundation can be found in a chronicle of 1465, written by Graziolo Accarisi, linking it with the legend of Picciola Galluzzi. Picciola had gone into a hermetic life on the hill of San Benedetto, when a dove drew a large circle with large pieces of wood. Picciola, having rushed to the site, after having consulted with the religious institutions of the city, decided to build a circular building dedicated to the Virgin. Following this tradition, the building is dated to 1116, similar to other architectural works in these hills in itiated by pious Bolognese women.
ART-HISTORICAL NOTES
Regardless of legend, the architectural culture of the Rotonda is definitely that of the 12th century, linked to other regional buildings, such as the Rotonda di Sacerno at Santa Maria di Calamosco. In 1873, the studies of Nikolajevic and Bergonzoni highlighted its importance and its specific role in the panorama of regional Romanesque architecture. It was built entirely of brick, with a diameter of 10 meters. The present building is the result of heavy restoration, begun by Zucchini in the 1930s. Along with the architecture, the splendid Romanesque frescoes are among the building’s most interesting features.
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