Colossus San Carlo
The Colossus of San Carlo , also Colossus of St. Charles Borromeo (called Sancarlone or in the local dialect Sancarlòn ) is a 30 meter high statue in Arona ( Novara , northern Italy), the district of San Carlo, on the Sacro Monte di Arona .
Saint Charles Borromeo
Saint Charles Borromeo was born on October 2, 1538 in the Castle of Arona (which was later partially destroyed on the orders of Napoleon Bonaparte ). He became bishop and cardinal at the age of 22 and became archbishop of Milan in 1565 . He sacrificed himself for material and spiritual support, especially in times of famine and plague. He died on November 3, 1584 (since he died after sunset, according to the custom of that time, the 4th day is the day of his death), he was beatified in 1602 and canonized in 1610 only 26 years after death.
Construction of the statue
At the behest of the cousin Federico , Archbishop of Milan and his successor, work began in 1624 on the construction of a Sacro Monte in memory of St. Carlo.
Federico Borromeo and Marco Aurelio Grattarola, supervisors of the work on Sacro Monte, also wanted to have an enormous statue erected, which should be visible from Lake Maggiore .
The design was by Giovanni Battista Crespi , known as Cerano, and the statue was assembled from hammered copper plates using iron nails and tie rods. The sculptors involved were Siro Zanella from Pavia and Bernardo Falconi from Bissone .
The work was completed in 1698 and on May 19 of the same year Cardinal Federico Caccia , Archbishop of Milan, solemnly blessed the monument.
features
The granite pedestal is 11.50 meters high, while the statue is 23.50 meters high. The monument measures a total of 35.00 meters (which corresponds to a ten-story building). The dimensions were precisely determined during the restoration, which was completed in 1975, under the direction of Carlo Ferrari Da Passano, director of the Milan cathedral building works. To allow a comparison of the dimensions, remember that the body of the Statue of Liberty (from the feet to the very tip of the torch) measures 46.5 meters. The length of the index finger is 1.95 meters, the hand is 1.45 meters and the thumb is 1.40 meters long.
The statue is open to the public, which can be reached inside via a spiral staircase and then on ladders to the head of St. Carlo arrives.
useful information
Another statue of St. Carlo is on the other side of the lake and is also called "Carlone" on the road that leads from Due Cossani, Dumenza , to Curiglia .
In “Sotto la sua mano” (Under His Hand), the writer Piero Chiara has surrendered to the imagination that part of the material necessary for the erection of the statue (the one for the head) through later manipulations and transformations (ultimately what the Napoleonic artillery made of it) was obtained by melting the male member of the Colossus of Rhodes , which was once intended to adorn the garden of an ancient Roman patrician house.
The statue's blessing right arm is a complex, semi-elastic metal structure to withstand the strong winds that often blow here in the bad season.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Archived copy ( memento of the original from June 23, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ http://www.novaratoday.it/cronaca/san-carlone-arona.html
- ↑ http://www.distrettolaghi.it/de/luoghi/statue-von-san-carlo
Web links
Coordinates: 45 ° 46 ′ 12.9 ″ N , 8 ° 32 ′ 36.1 ″ E