St. Scholastica Cathedral

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St. Scholastica Cathedral

The Cathedral of St. Scholastica ( Italian Cattedrale di Santa Scolastica ) is the abbey church of the monastery of the same name , which is located just outside the center of Subiaco in the Lazio region , and the seat of the Territorial Abbey of Subiaco, which belongs to the Sublacense Congregation of the Benedictine Order . It bears the title of a minor basilica .

history

The current cathedral stands in the same place as four previous places of worship: the oldest was the oratory of the Monastery of San Silvestro, founded by Saint Benedict in the early sixth century and changed its name to Monastery of Saints Benedict and Scholastica in the ninth century and with a new and larger church next to the previous one. On the same site, a new Romanesque-style church was built in the 10th century, consecrated by Pope Benedict VII on December 4, 980, and rebuilt in the Gothic style in the 14th century, assuming a single-nave structure built in ends in a rectangular apse.

In the second half of the 17th century, the abbot Cardinal Giovanni Francesco Banchieri (who left a large sum for this purpose on his death in 1763) underwent an extensive restoration in the classical style. The work under Giacomo Quarenghi began in May 1770 and was completed in 1773; however, the church was only consecrated on October 13, 1776 by Cardinal Carlo Rezzonico . The apse was built in 1852 to a design by Giacomo Monaldi. On January 28, 1876, Pope Pius IX withdrew . the abbey church the status of a cathedral and gave it to the church of St. Andrew in the center of Subiaco; this decision was revoked by the Holy See in 1892 and finally by the Italian state in 1901. The interim Cathedral of St. Andrew, which received the rank of minor basilica in 1952, became a co-cathedral. Between 1961 and 1962, during the renovation of the cathedral floor, archaeological excavations of the 6th century oratory were carried out and niches were opened. The church was founded in 1971 by Pope Paul VI. and visited in 1980 by Pope John Paul II .

architecture

The cathedral overlooks the second cloister of the Santa Scolastica Monastery, which is irregularly shaped and known as the Gothic Cloister, as there is a large 15th-century Gothic arch on the opposite side of the church. The facade is still Gothic with a straight end and still shows the rose window that was closed in the 18th century . A few steps lead to the pointed arched portal, which is preceded by a few steps, whereby the cloister opens with a large round arch. The wall around the door is decorated with 14th century frescoes depicting episodes from the life of St. Benedict.

The portal does not lie in the longitudinal axis of the cathedral, but is clearly shifted to the left due to the Romanesque bell tower to the right of it , at the foot of which is the entrance of the monks. The bell tower has a square floor plan and dates from 1052-1053; originally it was covered with a tall pyramidal spire that was torn off in the 17th century.

Furnishing

inner space

The interior of the cathedral is in the classicist style, which is almost entirely due to the restorations of 1770–1773 under the direction of Giacomo Quarenghi, who wanted to be inspired by the architecture of Andrea Palladio and in particular the Basilica of San Salvador in Venice, to give the architecture a noble and strict character.

The hall has a barrel vault and is illuminated by four semicircular windows on each side; Below are four side chapels: the first three are semicircular, with a marble altar surmounted by an altarpiece placed between two empty square niches. The chapels on the right are dedicated to Saints Cosmas and Damian, the Guardian Angel, Saint Jerome and the Virgin Mary, their altarpiece by Marcello di Piacenza from 1577 depicts the Madonna with the ring of Saint Heliodonia. The chapels on the on the left are dedicated to Saints Abbot Mauro, Gregory the Great, the Apostle Andrew and the Most Holy Sacrament (with canvas paintings of Saints Anatolia and Audace by Antonio Concioli, dated 1775). On the opposite facade, a large round arch frames the polychrome marble choir, which rests on Tuscan columns from Nero's villa in Sublacense. The choir is slightly higher than the rest of the church; the apse arch is flanked by the plaster statues of St. Benedict and St. Scholastica made by Ercole Dante in 1852, which are located in two double niches. On either side of the choir there are two rows of wooden stalls that make up the choir that the monks use during liturgical celebrations. The high altar, placed under the apse arch, is made of polychrome marble with applied gold decorations and is surmounted by a crucifix with a wooden cross and Christ in bronze by Enzo Assenza (1975).

Is located on the rear wall of the choir, the semi-circular apse, built in the second half of the 19th century to a design by Giacomo Monaldi, the connecting of the choir of the 17th century with the church a similar solution as the Basilica Il Redentore of Palladio found a semicircular basin resting on Ionic columns; In the original Quarenghi arrangement, access to the choir was through an opening as wide and rectangular as this one, framed on the sides by two pillars. The deep choir ends in turn with a semicircular apse, in the middle of which a large window opens, which is attached to the wooden choir stalls.

literature

  • Gabriele Paolo Carosi: Badia di Subiaco. Storia - arte - vita. Subiaco, Tipografia-Libreria S. Scolastica, 1970.
  • Claudio Grisanti, Giancarlo Santi: Atlante delle diocesi d'Italia, Roma, Conferenza Episcopale Italiana, 2000.
  • Terry Kirk: The Architecture of Modern Italy: the challenge of tradition 1750-1900 , Vol. I, New York, Princeton Architectural Press, 2005, ISBN 978-1-56898-420-9 .
  • Fabrizio Capanni, Giampiero Lilli: Le cattedrali del Lazio. L'adeguamento liturgico delle chiese madri nella regione ecclesiastica del Lazio. Cinisello Balsamo, Silvana, 2015, ISBN 978-88-366-3146-9 .

Web links

Commons : Cathedral of St. Scholastica  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ C. Grisanti, G. Santi, p. 100
  2. ↑ a b Basilica Cattedrale di S. Scolastica on gcatholic.org
  3. ^ Monastero di Santa Scolastica. benedettini-subiaco.org, accessed January 23, 2020 .
  4. ↑ a b Chiesa di Santa Scolastica. In: benedettini-subiaco.org. Retrieved January 23, 2020 .
  5. ^ GP Carosi, pp. 99-100
  6. ↑ GP Carosi, p. 111
  7. ^ Concattedrale di S. Andrea Apostolo on gcatholic.org
  8. ↑ a b c d Chiesa Monastica e Cattedrale di Santa Scolastica. beweb.chiesacattolica.it, accessed on January 23, 2020 (Italian).
  9. ↑ Chiostro gotico. In: benedettini-subiaco.org. Retrieved January 23, 2020 .
  10. ^ GP Carosi, p. 125
  11. ↑ T. Kirk, p. 61
  12. ^ GP Carosi, pp. 126-127.

Coordinates: 41 ° 55 ′ 5.9 ″  N , 13 ° 6 ′ 39.4 ″  E