Cattolica di Stilo

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Cattolica di Stilo
Cattolica di Stilo

The church of Cattolica di Stilo is a small Byzantine sacred building with a square floor plan. It is located on the slope of Monte Consolino near Stilo in the metropolitan city of Reggio Calabria ( Calabria ). Since 2006 it has been on a list along with seven other Basilian- Byzantine buildings to be included in the UNESCO World Heritage List .

Surname

The designation "Cattolica" indicates a "privileged church of the first degree" according to the nomenclature under Byzantine rule in the province of southern Italy (according to the Byzantine rite ). A Cattolica (from the Greek "Katholiki") was characterized by the presence of a baptistery . The name has remained to this day, as is the case with the Cattolica dei Greci in Reggio Calabria , which is the main church of the city.

history

The Cattolica (from Greek catholic - main church) was built at the end of the 10th century. Calabria belonged to the Byzantine Empire at this time . Until the conquest of Calabria by the Normans (1050-1061), however, the Muslim Saracens repeatedly managed to rule individual places in Calabria. In the Battle of Stilo , 85 km northeast of Stilo, lost 982 Emperor Otto II. An army of Sicily ruling Kalbite after he (Otto II.) Previously unsuccessfully Byzantine administrative headquarters Taranto had besieged. As the last Byzantine diocese in Calabria, Bova lasted until 1573.

The Cattolica was the mother church of the five parishes (parishes) in this area and was benefice for a protopapa (archpriest) who had the right to a grave in the church. Signs of this are human remains with a valuable ring in a marble tomb.

architecture

The Cattolica di Stilo is a typical Byzantine cross-domed church that depicts a Greek cross in plan . Inside, four columns divide the room into nine compartments. The central square and corners are vaulted with domes , with the middle dome being slightly higher and larger in diameter. To the east there are three apses .

This construction is comparable to that of the Chiesa di San Marco in Rossano , the Chiesa di San Giorgio di Pietra Cappa near San Luca and the Chiesa degli Ottimati in Reggio Calabria .

Exterior

Compact cross-in-square.jpg

The overall impression of the building appears as a cubic form, reinforced by a wickerwork of bricks that are connected with mortar. The use of fired bricks, which were more expensive but easier to work with, serves as decoration for the unplastered building .

While the western part leans directly against the bare rock, the east facade expands into three apses.

Externally, the church has almost no decorations. The domes are undecorated except for a few brick squares and two herringbone brick frames along the windows.

inner space

inside view
Panoramic view

The special arrangement of the light sources inside emphasizes the height of the room and thus symbolically illustrates the position of the human being in the heavenly hierarchy. This expansion of the space also highlighted the frescoes with which the church was originally decorated.

The small interior of the church is extended to the east by the three apses. The middle one ( bema ) contains the altar, the northern one ( prothesis ) is reserved for the preparatory rite for bread and wine, while the southern one ( diakonicon ) is used to dress the priests before the liturgy.

A bell tower was built over the southern apse in 1577. At that time the church was redesigned for the Latin rite and a relief of the Madonna and Child and a Latin inscription were added. The inscription reads: Verbum Caro Factum Est Anno Domini MCLXXVII Mater Misericordiæ (" The Word was made flesh " in the year 1427 of the Merciful Mother) The first four words are part of the Angelus prayer (John 1, 14)

A piece of an ancient column in the apse of the prothesis was used as a table for the storage of the Eucharist , and the four columns that support the dome rest on separate bases . They are spoils from older buildings.

There are also inscriptions in Arabic script inside the church . One of them is reminiscent of the Shahada , the creed of Islam La Ila ha Illa Alla h wahdahu
There is no god but the one god

and another says: Lilla hi al Hamdu
praise be to God, so it cannot be ruled out that the church was temporarily used as a Muslim house of prayer.

Trivia

A picture of the church can be found on the cover "Time Loves A Hero" by the American rock boogie band Little Feat .

literature

  • Timothy Reuter: Germany in the Early Middle Ages 800-1056 , New York, Longman, 1991.
  • K. Stathas: History of Medieval Europe (Ιστορία Μεσαιωνικής Ευρώπης)

Web links

Commons : Cattolica di Stilo  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 38 ° 28 '48 "  N , 16 ° 28' 4.4"  E