Sante Teuteria e Tosca
The church Sante Teuteria e Tosca is a building in the UNESCO World Heritage old town of Verona and is located next to the church Santi Apostoli.
Patronage
The floor of the Romanesque church is a good 2 meters below street level, which indicates the old age of the church. It contains the building fabric of a late antique martyrion . Here, in front of the Porta Borsari and thus outside the ancient city, ran the Roman road and on this was an early Christian cemetery.
There was probably a memorial over a martyr's grave at this point as early as the 5th century. This building had nothing to do with Teuteria and Tosca (see below); it was probably built for Saint Apollinaris of Ravenna .
The cult of the two holy virgins Tusca (Tosca) and Teuteria did not arise until the Middle Ages, after it was believed in 1160 that their bones had been found and the church was then rededicated. According to legend, the two had lived as hermits in a cave near Verona in the 3rd century , which was wonderfully closed with a spider's web for protection.
When the sarcophagus inside the chapel was opened in 1913, it was not found, as expected, two women's skeletons, but those of a late antique couple.
Building description
The first church building over the alleged relics of the two saints had a cross-shaped floor plan and probably looked similar to the mausoleum of Galla Placidia in Ravenna . Although documents from the 14th century say that the church was consecrated in the 8th century, the stylistic similarity to buildings in Ravenna and Pula suggests that it was built in the 5th / 6th century. Century.
In the 14th century it was completely rebuilt to serve as a chapel for the Bevilacqua family. The arms of the cross were torn down to create a rectangular church interior with an apse .
These conversions can be seen on the facade; the preserved masonry of the older church (an imitation of opus spicatum ) can be seen in the middle of the long sides.
inner space
Above the altar is the sarcophagus made of red marble from the 12th century and redesigned in the 15th century. In addition to two tombs of members of the Bevilacqua family, there is a large 13th-century baptismal font in the chapel , which comes from San Lorenzo . It was created from a single block of marble.
In the interior, the dome of the late antique building resting on four pillars is still preserved, as is the antique paving made of colored marble pieces.
Web links
- City portal Verona: Chiesa Santi Apostoli, Sante Teuteria e Tosca (St. Apostle Church, St. Teuteria and Tosca)
literature
- Gillian Mackie: Early Christian Chapels in the West: Decoration, Function, and Patronage . University of Toronto Press 2003. ISBN 0-8020-3504-3 .
- Klaus Zimmermanns: Veneto: the cities and villas of Terraferma , DuMont 2011.
Individual evidence
- ^ Gillian Vallance Mackie: Early Christian Chapels in the West . S. 36 .
- ^ Gillian Vallance Mackie: Early Christian Chapels in the West . S. 37 .
Coordinates: 45 ° 26 ′ 26.9 ″ N , 10 ° 59 ′ 33.9 ″ E