HISTORY
The church of Santo Stefano is located between the Bentivoglio’s fortress and the clock tower inside the walls of the town of Bazzano who had a central role in the defense of the whole western area of the hills around Bologna. The first document attesting its existence dates from 798 and shows the function that assumed the old church in political conflicts that occurred between Modena and Bologna for the certification of landed estate belonging to the two municipalities. While in the tenth century the church was under the jurisdiction of the bishop of Modena, in 1204 it passed under Bologna. These legal vicissitudes ended with the final transition to the jurisdiction of the Church of Bologna in 1398 at the behest of Pope Boniface IX. Over the centuries, the building was affiliated with other churches of greater importance: for example, in 1155, it belonged to Monteveglio’s parish and between the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries it was one of the properties of the church of Sant'Andrea at Corneliano. In 1573 however, with the increase in population density, it became an autonomous church assuming the dependencies of the parishes of Crespellano, Pregatto, Oliveto, Montemaggiore and Montebudello. Between the sixteenth and seventeenth century, the Bentivoglio’s fortress was rebuilt, and this operation involved also the church, which took on its current direction, with the apse to the west and the entrance to the east. This was followed by further action of alteration of the original structure: in the eighteenth century, for example, architect Francesco Tadolini enlarged it with the construction of the Blessed Sacrament chapel; it was then enlarged in the early decades of the twentieth century with the erection of the left aisle. The last intervention was carried out in connection with the bombings of 1944, when it was decided to recover the original shape of the structure: so the current facade, dating back to the restoration of 1945, recalls in particular the Romanesque style and in the same way the half-columns, capitals, and rose-window.
ART-HISTORICAL NOTES
After the discovery inside the church of one of the oldest artifacts currently surviving, probably a stone portal fragment in Lombard or Carolingian style, we cannot exclude a Byzantine origin of the structure. The church was, in fact, influenced by the Romanesque style, which leaves its traces for example in the presence of a fragment of sandstone capital decorated with a rosette with seven petals and shapes of lily, preserved today in the communal museum "Arsenio Crespellani" in the fortress of Bentivoglio. At that time, the building also had a typical Romanesque structure with a single nave and an apse facing east. Now the church has a tripartite nave with an apse facing west, with a flat front. Inside the church are exposed modern artistic works, such as the Santo Stefano of Simon Cantarini placed on the altar and some paintings of Gaetano Gandolfi.
HISTORY
Santa Maria Assunta is located in the small town of Bordone. The church preserves its medieval nucleus despite various later renovations. It is situated along the historic Via Francigena, an important thoroughfare for pilgrims that constituted the principle network in the Roman period between Parma and Lumi, while in the Lombard period, it was the only link between Tuscany and the Po Valley. Santa Maria Assunta is found at about the halfway point on the pass through the Apennines, and became a fundamental stop for pilgrims traveling to Rome. Its existence was first documented in 1005, though recent restoration work has revealed the presence of much older foundations predating the road, possibly from about the 7th century. In its present form, the structure has been radically modified over time, particularly in the interventions completed between 1640 and 1670 conforming to the directives of the Tridentine reform.
ART-HISTORICAL NOTES
The church that is ascribable to the Romanesque period was adapted from a preexisting building from the 9th century, that had an apse and ashlar masonry. However, recent art-historical research has highlighted the possibility that the Carolingian structure was itself built on top of a 6th-century Byzantine church, which was probably centrally planned, with the apse in the east. The church today has a single nave, terminating in a flat-ended apse, with lateral chapels from the 16th and 17th centuries.
HISTORY
The church of San Tommaso di Cabriolo, in the area bordering Borgo San Donnino, belonged to the Order of the Knights Templar. Its original foundation was probably part of land donations to the Order from the most prestigious families of Parma at the time. It was originally a dependency of thedomus of Santa Maria Maddalena di Toccalmatto, from which it successfully detached itself.
An oratory at the site was already attested to in the 11th century, but it was its passage to the Templars at the end of the 12th century that instigated the a new construction. The church was formerly dedicated to Thomas Becket. In addition to the Rotonda, there was also a hospital. In 1230, in the Capitulum seu Rotulos Decimarum of the diocese of Parma, under the Bishop Grazia, the church was cited as the Ecclesia de Cacobrolo in plebe Burgi Sancti Domnini. The estate was sacked and burned in 1309, leaving only part of the apse from the Templar phase. The complex thus remained in a state of semi-abandon, until sometime between the end of the 14th and the beginning of the 15th century, when new patrons rebuilt the church, reutilizing part of the original building. The Knights of Malta maintained the commendam of San Tommaso until the Napoleonic suppressions when it passed into private hands.
ART-HISTORICAL NOTES
The church is one of the most notable examples of architecture of the knightly orders in Emilia Romagna: the stone apse today reveals the remains of the rotunda, decorated by blind arches and lancet windows. The nave is from a later constructive phase by the Hospitallers, along more Gothic lines. The gabled façade was drastically rebuilt in 1816. The 15th-century reconstruction probably concluded with the pictorial decoration of which important traces remain along the left wall.
HISTORY
The Church of SS. Simone and Giuda at Sanguinaro, in the commune of Noceto existed by the end of the 11th century. Two documents dated 1080 and 1095 link its foundation to a donation of the priest Mangifredo, who wanted to provide religious assistance to wayfarers and pilgrims who took refuge in the nearby hospice. The complex subsequently passed on to be a dependency of the Benedictine monastery of San Prospero at Reggio, and in 1168 it was ceded to the Knights Hospitaller of San Giovanni who maintained it until 1798.
In 1471, the young foundation became an autonomous commendam: an event that seems to all a post quem for dating the 15th-century restructuring and the consequent realization of the picture cycle in the apse. A plaque placed over the portal records that it was the ‘commendatore’ Alessandro Burzio, who in 1578, to rebuild where the building had collapsed over time, and repaint part of the 15th-century frescoes, and also shorten the upper church by at least two bays.
In 1864, the church was sold into private hands, at the beginning of the 20th century, a campaign of restoration was begun, the current rectory built in 1910.
ART-HISTORICAL NOTES
The beauty of the church’s crypt is well known. The structure is semi-underground, covered by rib and groin vaults. Round and squared piers punctuate the space, and little windows along the walls create a charming illumination. The wall and plan type place the church within a group of buildings dated to the early Romanesque period in the province of Parma: an artistic culture diffused in the second half of the 11th century. It is likely that the first church was in response to the requests of the priest Mangifredo to create two superimposed spaces that separately served the needs of the clergy on the one hand, and the laity on the other.
HISTORY
As early as the 11th century, there was a chapel dedicated to the protomartyr Santo Stefano, close to the city of Reggio Emilia. From the manuscripts in the archive of San Prospero we learn that in 1019, the emperor Henry II donated to Bishop Teuzone the chapel and the adjacent buildings as a hospice for pilgrims. In 1047, Bishop Sigifredo II left Santo Stefano to the canons of San Prospero in Castello. Then on February 23, 1130, Provost Erardo, in the name of the Chapter of San Prospero, left the church, hospital and its property to Alberto, Abbot of the Abbey of Frassinoro. The Benedictines thus became the beneficiaries of Santo Stefano with the obligation of paying an annual rent of eight pounds of oil. In January 1161, Achille Taccoli, Archdeacon of Reggio and Provost of the Basilica of San Prospero, left Santo Stefano to the Templars.
ART-HISTORICAL NOTES
We can hypothesize a first campaign soon after the mid-11th century: the chapel was at that time transformed into a small oratory by the complex’s new canons. The walls of the aisles, the octagonal piers and the columns of the second bay probably belong to this campaign, distinguishable for their peculiar type of brickwork. A precious trace of the 11th-century building can be seen in the limestone vegetal capital, conserved in the offices of the parish priest. The stylistic characteristics of the decoration find many resonances in the sculpture of the region; an interesting comparison can be made with the capitals in the Bolognese crypt of the church of SS. Naborre and Felice. We do not have specific documents, but it is probable that the expansion of the building was after 1130, as a direct consequence of its possession by the Abbey of Frassinoro. The brick columns and capitals in the transept also attest to the church’s reconstruction along the stylistic lines of the Po Valley Romanesque.
HISTORY
The present parish church of Castellarano, dedicated to Santa Maria Assunta, exists in a late-Baroque style of the seventeenth century. But in that historical moment, it was rebuilt on the ancient structure of a preexisting parish. Some archaeological remains under the present church attest to this early church, datable to the 9th century and later reconstructed at the time of Matilda of Canossa, or substituted by a second, Romanesque structure. Of this ancient structure, part of the walls survive under the pavement, in addition to the four columns with sculpted capitals and two corbelled capitals. If these architectural remains, on the basis of their characteristics can be dated to the Frankish domination of the area, the copy of the portal with lunette, located inside the church on the side of the altar of San Pancrazio, is from a later period, perhaps the 12th century. The present church was also subjected to significant restoration, from 1899-1901, when these Romanesque elements were discovered along with several others.
ART-HISTORICAL NOTES
The modern church is notably different from the previous one on the site. It is in the form of a Latin cross with four lateral chapels in the nave and two in the transept. Although a product of the 17th century, several of the church’s Romanesque elements furvive, such as the crypt and some of the pier bases, which demonstrate that the early construction was three-aisled with vaults, a raised presbytery and crypt. The crypt was partially restored with four colonettes surmounted by primitive capitals and abaci from the 11th-12th centuries. These capitals can be compared with those in the atrium in Sant’Ambrogio in Milan, those of Santo Stefano in Bologna, and the parish of Rubbiano, in both their energy and originality of detail.
HISTORY
The church of Sant’Eufemia is located right in the center of Piacenza, along the street of the same name. A plaque located on the interior of the sacristy, dated 1091, tells us that its foundation occurred following the discovery in a nearby church of the relics of Sant’Eufemia. The basilica was then founded around 1000, though it was consecrated in 1108. Piacenza was one of the most important Romanesque centers of northern Italy. In the eleventh century, the building underwent a first set of changes: to the primitive basilical form, a porch was added in front of the central façade. The next major interventions did not take place until the 17th and 18th centuries, when the church was expanded and adapted to Baroque styles. In 1836, the campanile revealed structural issues, which led to its demolition, although it was later reconstructed in its original style. In 1898 the restoration work began by Camillo Guidotti until 1904, who attempted to restore its Romanesque style. Thus all of the later additions were eliminated , including the demolition of almost all the lateral chapels, and the partial redesign of the façade. It was then that the campanile was rebuilt in a neo-Gothic style.
ART-HISTORICAL NOTES
The church’s façade today is authentically Romanesque in the lower half. The porch is divided in three bays, the arches topped by pilasters sculpted with leaves and imaginary zoomorphic figures, an optimal example of the stylistic evolution of regional sculpture of the 12th century, characterized by attention to sculptural effect and naturalistic detail. The upper part of the façade, however, is not authentic, and is the product of Guidotti’s questionable 1898 neo-Gothic restorations, including the pinnacles and the decorative interlaced arches under the eaves. Inside, the curch conforms to the basilica plan of a Latin cross, with three aisles, and subdivided into bays by alternating brick piers: four bays in the nave and eight in the aisles. The church is covered by ribbed vaults, with alternating brick and stone on the transverse arches.
HISTORY
The small Romanesque church of Sant’Ilario sits on a street right in Piacenza’s historic center. Originally a hospital church, it was built right around the 12th century. It was initially associated with a pharmacy, and it was not elevated to a parish church until the 16th century, when it became the patron church of the city’s jewelers. It was subsequently the seat of the Congregation of the Holy Sacrament, which was begun in 1576 by the Bishop Paolo Burali, to provide assistance to pilgrims. But in 1810, it was suppressed and closed, first adapted to a warehouse, and then to the Communal Archive, which today is located in the Palazzo Farnese. Restorations began in 1930, particularly in the apsidal zone, which had been demolished in the 19th century, and on the rose window, which had been substituted in the 18th century with a rectangular window. It was recently restored by the Commune of Piacenza, and is now a community theater.
ART-HISTORICAL NOTES
While the single-aisled interior, substantially altered in the 16th century, is not particularly interesting, the gabled façade preserves much of its original structure, despite some 16th-century additions. The brick façade has a sculpted portal and a gallery of arches on colonnettes and stone capitals. The arch that crowns the portal, on the other hand, is the product of the 16th century, as well as the two lateral blind arches. The embrasure of the 12th-century portal is a true masterpiece of 12th-century Romanesque sculpture, displaying jambs with Corinthian capitals and an architrave sculpted in bas-relief.
HISTORY
According to tradition, Saint Victor, the first Bishop of Piacenza, founded the basilica in an area called the Noble Valley, and was buried here in 375. The church was initially dedicated to him, but in 400, the Bishop Savino translated the remains of the martyr Sant’Antonino, who died in 303, who then became, together with Victor, the co-patron of the city. With the new dedication to the martyr, the basilica was the city’s Cathedral for several centuries and maintained an important spiritual and political role for a long time. In 1183, it was chose as the site of a meeting between Imperial ambassadors and representatives of the Lombard League when the Peace of Constance was signed. In 758, the Cathedral was moved to the site of the current Cathedral, at the time dedicated to Santa Giustina, and which shared the piazza with a second church, San Giovanni de Domo, which may also have been a baptistery. In 870, the simple Paleo-Christian basilica was enlarged by the construction of a transept and a rectangular lantern over the crossing. The church was repeatedly plagued by Hungarian invasions during the 10th century, and in 1004, the Bishop Sigfrido promoted the construction of a third church, whose pre-Romanesque characteristics and overall look persist in the modern building. There were numerous later interventions and restructurings, particularly in 1693, when the interior was remodeled in a Baroque style, to later be completely be restored according to neomedieval taste in 1853. The structural complexity of Sant’Antonino, the prominence of its history and the uniqueness of several of its architectonic characteristics, make it one of the most important religious complexes in Piacenza.
ART-HISTORICAL NOTES
The historic events and the evolution of architectural taste have left a lasting effect on the structure and the stylistic variety of the Basilical complex. The shape of Bishop Siegfried’s building has in some ways impacted the successive interventions, giving the church a spectacular uniqueness, and determining a mix of styles that manage to amalgamate in a surprisingly harmonic manner. Brick dominates the building’s aesthetic: the glue that ties this fascinating structural mix together. The plan is an inverted Latin cross, with the transept preceded by the aisles and the large octagonal tower above the crossing. In 1350, Pietro Vago built the large “Paradise” Atrium, in Lombard Gothic forms, in order to exalt the building’s main entrance. As anticipated, the 11th-century interventions substantially reconstructed the preexisting structure, the Latin cross was turned 45 degrees, the arm was elongated and three aisles were built terminating in apses. During this phase, the large open tower was built, with three floors of double-lancet windows, and a cloister was constructed. The present cloister, from 1523, replaced the medieval one in Renaissance forms. The church was vaulted in 1453.
HISTORY
The Cathedral of Piacenza is one of the most important Romanesque buildings of the Po River Valley, contemporary with the Cathedral in Parma and the Abbey in Nonantola. An inscription on the façade records its foundation in 1122. An earthquake in 1117 probably motivated the construction of the new church, replacing the former Cathedral, which had been dedicated to Santa Giustina. The new Cathedral was contemporary with the election of the city’s first five consuls, signifying the definitive ascent of communal power. The building thus became an expression of communal spirituality, specifically of the trade guilds whose contributions to its construction were immortalized in the sculptural panels on the nave piers. There has been some debate about whether the Cathedral was originally located at Sant’Antonino, and potentially remaining as a rival Cathedral as late as the third decade of the twelfth century. As in all of the major Emilian workshops, construction on Piacenza’s Duomo lasted over a century, completed under the leadership of Rinaldo Santo da Sambuceto in 1233.
There were several constructional phases, which can be broadly summarized in two periods: the first lasting until 1150, including most of the sculptural decoration and the main structure of the church, and the second beginning in 1179, after the battle of Legnano, and continuing on and off until work was completed in the second quarter of the thirteenth century. In the following centuries, there were various modifications to the structure of the church: in the Gothic period, the rose window on the façade; in 1333, the bell tower and the baptismal chapel; and the interior underwent numerous changes in the Post-Tridentine period. At the end of the nineteenth century, radical restorations were begun, which eliminated most paintings and other decorations from the seventeenth century, leaving the building in a hyper-Romanesque state, representative of neo-medieval taste.
ART-HISTORICAL NOTES
The plan of the Duomo is a Latin cross, articulated on the interior by twenty-six piers, five bays in the nave, six bays of half the length in each arm of the transept, and ten of the same size in the aisles. The lower story of the aisles are Romanesque in their articulation, while the upper parts already demonstrate formal characteristics that are substantially Gothic. There are blind galleries on the walls of the nave; the windows are carved within the wall and function to alleviate the weight of the vaults and to modulate the light of the interior. In addition to the seven panels of the guilds on the nave piers, a masterpiece of Romanesque sculpture in the sphere of Nicolò, the capitals, too, contain various decorations: plant, animal and human, such as those on the retro of the façade with the story of David. Finally, the crypt with its 108 marble columns and capitals awaits as one of the most harmonious and best preserved parts of the building.
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