Chiesa di San Giuliano (Catania)

Representation of the future facade at the start of construction (1741).

Middle part of the facade.

Façade and Tiburio with surrounding loggia .

The Chiesa di San Giuliano on Via dei Crociferi , which was built between 1741 and 1763, is considered to be one of the most beautiful examples of the late baroque in Catania . It is a work by Giuseppe Palazzotto (1702–1764).

The former Benedictine Abbey of Badia di San Giuliano is dedicated to St. Julianus of Le Mans , whose cult the Normans brought to Sicily . In the noblest of the five women's convents in the city, the nobility had their daughters raised to wives or kept them away from the opposite sex for life to prevent inheritance being divided .

history

After the devastating earthquake of 1693, the monastery was relocated from the site of the current parish church of San Gaetano alla Marina in the Civita district to the more centrally located area between today's Crociferi, Sangiuliano and Manzoni streets . The facade of the first, provisional church facing Via Sangiuliano is still visible.

Today's church is still referred to as a masterpiece by Canon Giovan Battista Vaccarini (1702–1768) from Palermo in the request for inclusion in the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2002 . In the meantime, however, the art historian Salvatore Maria Calogero has proven that it actually came from the local secular architect Palazzotto - a story that illustrates the level of knowledge of the origins of some of Sicily's monuments (and the trustworthiness of overviews and art guides).

description

The floor plan of the church is an octagon elongated in an east-west direction. Eight pillars support the monastery vault of the large dome . Four large apses and four smaller chapels alternate between the pillars . In the east apse is the main altar , in the west - the outside of which forms the convex middle part of the facade - the vestibule with the entrances to the cloister and the crypt , in the north the barred access to the chapter house and the confessionals , in the south the Entrances to the sacristy and an atrium above the crypt. The dome is encased in a prismatic tiburio , the top of which forms a circumferential loggia .

Paolo Amato (1634–1714) and Rosario Gagliardi (1698–1762) had already used comparable floor plans in Sicily . In contrast, the exterior design of the building with a crowning loggia was new for the island, unless there were models destroyed in the earthquake of 1783 in Messina , where Palazzotto's father Girolamo (1688–1754) had come to Catania . According to the aforementioned Calogero, Palazzotto based the design of the facade on the pentagram as well as the equilateral triangle and the golden section , which indicates Masonic influences. The statue decoration of the church consists of two female figures above the main portal , carrying a branch or a cross, two putti each above the functionless side portals and Fides , Caritas and two angels by the hand of the Palermitan sculptor Giovan Battista Marino above the main altar.

secularization

After the Kingdom of Italy abolished the religious orders in 1866 , the monastery served various purposes. The Church has been entrusted to the Order of Knights of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem since the interwar period . The fascists turned the convent buildings into " Duce " barracks . In the two-storey cloister which now has post-Communist trade union CGIL the local seat.

As part of a tour of the church, the two-storey nuns choir above the vestibule can be viewed and the dome climbed, from which there is a beautiful view of the city, Mount Etna and the sea.

literature

Giacinto Taibi: La chiesa di San Giuliano a Catania. In: Quaderno dell'Istituto Dipartimentale di Architettura ed Urbanistica, Università di Catania, 13/1983, pp. 19–39.
Salvo Calogero: Nuovi documenti sulla costruzione della chiesa e del monastero di S. Giuliano a Catania. In: Tecnica e Ricostruzione, 57/2002, January – June, pp. 34–46.
Salvo Calogero: L'architetto Giuseppe Palazzotto e la chiesa di San Giuliano a Catania. In: Synaxis (Studio Teologico S. Paolo, Catania), 25/1 (2007), pp. 143-174 ( digitized version ).
Salvatore Maria Calogero: La Badia di San Giuliano in Via Crociferi da Monastero di Clausura a Camera del Lavoro. Agorà, Catania 2010, ISBN 978-88-8993-008-3 , v. a. Pp. 27-52, 111-122.
Salvatore Maria Calogero: I messinesi Palazzotto: protagonisti della ricostruzione di Catania post 1693. In: Archivio storico messinese, 96/2015, pp. 51–95 ( digitized ), here: pp. 51 f., 74.

Web links

Ordine Equestre del Santo Sepolcro di Gerusalemme: chiese affidate all'Ordine in Sicilia ( digitized ).

Individual evidence

↑ Adolfo Longhitano, Preface to Salvatore Maria Calogero: La Badia di San Giuliano in Via Crociferi as Monastero di Clausura a Camera del Lavoro. Agorà, Catania 2010, ISBN 978-88-8993-008-3 , p. 8.
^ Noto and late Baroque of South-Eastern Sicily, proposal for inscription World Heritage List UNESCO ( digitized version ). P. 54.
^ Salvatore Maria Calogero: La Badia di San Giuliano in Via Crociferi da Monastero di Clausura a Camera del Lavoro. Agorà, Catania 2010, ISBN 978-88-8993-008-3 , pp. 132-134, 144.

37.5044 15.0851Coordinates: 37 ° 30 '15.8 " N , 15 ° 5' 6.4" E

[1] Adolfo Longhitano, Preface to Salvatore Maria Calogero: La Badia di San Giuliano in Via Crociferi as Monastero di Clausura a Camera del Lavoro. Agorà, Catania 2010, ISBN 978-88-8993-008-3 , p. 8.

[2] Noto and late Baroque of South-Eastern Sicily, proposal for inscription World Heritage List UNESCO ( digitized version ). P. 54.

[3] Salvatore Maria Calogero: La Badia di San Giuliano in Via Crociferi da Monastero di Clausura a Camera del Lavoro. Agorà, Catania 2010, ISBN 978-88-8993-008-3 , pp. 132-134, 144.