Christ of Maratea
The Christ of Maratea ( Italian : Statua del Redentore or Cristo Redentore ) is a 21 meter high statue of Christ in Maratea in the province of Potenza in Italy . The statue was created from 1963 to 1965 by the Florentine sculptor Bruno Innocenti from a special mixture of cement and white Carrara marble . It stands on the summit of Monte San Biagio (623 m) opposite the Basilica of San Biagio. It is one of the landmarks of Maratea.
history
prehistory
On the rocky summit of San Biagio rise the ruins of the ancient, long uninhabited Maratea. In 1806 the fortified citadel was attacked by 4,500 French soldiers. In 1907 they wanted to commemorate this event by erecting an iron cross on the highest point of the mountain. This cross was then regularly struck by lightning and overturned.
In 1942, the mayor Biagio Vitolo developed a new memorial cross, this time made of concrete and equipped with lightning rods, to replace the iron cross. The new cross was realized in connection with the construction of the first drivable road to the Basilica San Biagio, from which an avenue leads to the top of the mountain.
Construction of the statue
When industrialization began in Maratea in 1953 with the help of the Cassa del Mezzogiorno , Stefano Rivetti developed the idea of replacing the memorial cross with a large monument to Christ the Redeemer. On September 5, 1961, he sent a letter to the city administration, in which he set out his intentions. The city council approved the construction on the condition that the memorial cross be dismantled and preserved first. It was rebuilt at a different location in September 1963.
The artist Bruno Innocenti, professor at the Institute of Fine Arts in Florence , was entrusted with the project work. Construction began in November 1963 and lasted until spring 1965.
The Christ and Maratea
There was no opening ceremony for the statue after the construction was completed. Because in the local elections in 1964, in which two rival parties participated, the victory was won by those who opposed the interests of Rivetti and his people. A climate of cold and hostility prevailed, which was expressed, among other things, in the renunciation of an inauguration ceremony for the monument. Nevertheless, the statue of Christ, albeit quietly and quietly, immediately took on a leading role in the world of Maratea's art.
description
Size and construction
The monument is located on the highest point of Monte San Biagio, the top of which rises several hundred meters above the steep cliffs of the port of Maratea. The figure measures 21.13 meters from the feet to the top of the head. The span of the outstretched arms is around 19 meters. The head is three meters high. The figure weighs around 400 tons.
The construction is based on a steel skeleton, while the foundation extends a few tens of meters into the ground. A layer of concrete and flakes of Carrara marble often over 20 centimeters thick rests on the steel structure . The statue has no pedestal; she rises straight from the bare rock. On the left the foot of Christ is visible, on the right his robe extends to the ground.
Appearance
The face differs significantly from the classic iconography of the depictions of Jesus. The Christ has short hair and the beard is barely visible. The outstretched arms show a gesture reminiscent of the Our Father's prayer, with the right arm raised slightly higher than the left.
Innocenti was very careful that the figure did not look like a foreign body in its surroundings, but that it blended into the panorama as much as possible. The color and the architectural lines were not chosen arbitrarily either, but evoke elements of Maratea's nature. According to Marco Fagioli, the biographer and critic of the Florentine artist, the Christ of Maratea shows features that Innocenti otherwise reserves for his angels.
Plaque
Behind the Christ is a lookout point from which you can admire a large part of the Maratea coast.
Just below the statue's shoulders is a small plaque with the Latin inscription:
- Deo Gratias Agens / Stephanus Rivetti / Valcervus Comes / Hoc Simulacrum / Posuit / AD MCMLXV.
- In gratitude to God / Stefano Rivetti, / Count of Val Cervo, / put up this image / in the year of the Lord 1965.
There is also a plaque with the title “Innocenti and the Christ the Redeemer”. According to a written testimony from Bruno Innocenti, the statue wanted to signify "the new birth, the new hope that comes from the risen Christ".
The statue in literature and the media
The poet Pasquale Epifanio Iannini from Maratea dedicated a poem to the monument on the occasion of its completion: Poems for Christ ("Poetry per il Cristo").
Now the Redeemer stands there on the mountain / with his divine arms, which he lifts up to heaven / as if he lifted up the world and love / moved it and his longing in winged urges / for eternal peace in every heart. / Now in Maratea stands above the decorated slopes / laughing from blooming gorse / above the villages and the sea and the hallowed / walls of the basilica the Lord / awakens to the divine sun from the storm / and in the serene air in its white splendor / in Heavenly name, O great Creator, / whom you now invite all to pray to him.
Another more recent poem is by Salvatore Cirigliano. This poem, made up of rhyming pairs, praises Innocenti and Rivetti. The redeemer is also described, who points to the Creator in heaven with open arms and symbolizes the acceptance of sinners with his feet on the ground.
The statue is often associated with Maratea in the media as a logo and symbol, especially through the local organization Pro Loco .
Literature and poetry
In the short stories Simultaneous of Ingeborg Bachmann (1972), the main character finds suddenly in the presence of the monument, after having reached the summit of the mountain, accompanied by her partner. The Christ of Maratea was transformed by Bachmann into a symbol of a judge who throws the protagonist, a proud feminist, back into "patriarchal reality".
The Christ of Maratea also appears in “The Stone Witness” ( Il testimone di pietra ), a 2008 crime thriller by Raffaele Ruggiero.
movie theater
The statue of Christ can be seen in two films made in Italy, in Ogni lasciato è perso by Piero Chiambretti and in Basilicata Coast to Coast by Rocco Papaleo. In the first film, the protagonist at the top of the mountain asks the statue for a favor. In the Papaleo film, the statue appears right at the beginning of the film, and its image was also used for the movie poster.
particularities
- The body of the statue is slightly bent forward, creating the optical illusion from a distance, as if it were watching the sea, while in reality it was looking at the Basilica of S. Biagio and the hinterland.
See also
literature
- Ingeborg Bachmann : Tre sentieri per il lago e altri racconti. Adelphi Edizioni , Milan 1994.
- Josè Cernicchiaro, Mimmo Longobardi: Pietre nel Cielo: Il Castello di Maratea. Tipografia Zaccara, Lagonegro 1988.
- Domenico Damiano: Maratea nella storia e nella luce della fede. Tipografia S. Francesco, Sapri 1965.
- Marco Fagioli, Bruno Innocenti: L'anima e la forma. Aion, Florence 2006.
- Chiara Rivetti di Val Cervo Elek (Ed.): Cristo Redentore di Maratea. Zaccara Editore 2013.
Individual evidence
- ^ Domenico Damiano: Maratea nella storia e nella luce della fede , Sapri, Tipografia S. Francesco, 1965, p. 108.
- ^ Domenico Damiano: Maratea nella storia e nella luce della fede , Sapri, Tipografia S. Francesco, 1965, p. 108.
- ↑ Cernicchiaro & Longobardi, p. 17.
- ↑ Cernicchiaro & Longobardi, p. 20.
- ↑ Cernicchiaro & Longobardi, p. 18.
- ↑ Cernicchiaro & Longobardi, pp. 17-18.
- ↑ Cernicchiaro & Longobardi, p. 20.
- ↑ Domenico Damiano, p. 108.
- ↑ Cernicchiaro & Longobardi, p. 20.
- ↑ Dominic Damiano, p. 110.
- ↑ Marco Fagioli, Bruno Innocenti: L'anima e la forma. Florence 2006, p. 35.
- ↑ Domenico Damiano, p. 108.
- ^ Salvatore Cirigliano: Il Cristo di Maratea , Maratea 2010.
- ^ Ingeborg Bachmann: Tre sentieri per il lago e altri racconti. Milan 1994, pp. 38-40.
- ↑ Brochure from the tourist office: Basilicata in Scena , p. 16.
- ↑ The poster for the film on mymovies.it
Coordinates: 39 ° 59 ′ 17 " N , 15 ° 43 ′ 13.7" E