Madonna del Sasso
The pilgrimage church of the Madonna del Sasso is an important destination for pilgrimages and rises on a rocky promontory within the small valley that the Ramogna torrent has dug, at an altitude of 370 meters in the municipality of Orselina above Locarno in the Swiss canton of Ticino .
Attractions
In addition to the monastery, the building complex or Sacro Monte includes the Church of the Annunciation , the chapels below along the old access road with the arcade of the cross, the ascent of the Way of the Cross and its stations in Ädikulä, the chapel of Pietà in the courtyard, the chapels of Lamentation of the dead Christ , the Last Supper and the Holy Spirit below the arcade, the stairs, the cemetery cross, the church square and finally the church of Santa Maria Assunta called Madonna del Sasso.
history
At the end of the 15th century the Franciscan Fra Bartolomeo Piatti from Ivrea settled as a hermit in a small village at the foot of the rock. He came from the monastery of San Francesco in Locarno , where he had no special title and no office within the community. His ascetic life promoted a strong cult of the Virgin among the local population , who, according to legend, appeared to the friar.
The construction of the church of Santa Maria Annunciata at the foot of the ledge started thanks to the donation of the property by Antonio Guido Orelli. In the notarial deed of donation, the name «Madonna del Sasso» appears for the first time in the spelling «santa Maria del Saxo». On February 16, 1498, Pope Alexander VI confirmed . the Masina del Monte family donated the rock of Orselina to the Franciscans to build a pilgrimage site there. The church was consecrated in 1502.
On January 10, 1514 Pope Leo X freed the hill of the pilgrimage site from all servitude and jurisdiction. In 1522 the walls were given a series of frescoes , including that of the north wall of the choir with the Madonna on the throne with child , called Domenico Pezzi from Puria « Furgnicus », a painter who commuted between the area of Lugano and Genoa and in the monastery church of Santa Maria degli Angioli in Lugano, in the parish church of Santa Maria del Sasso in Morcote , in the arcade in front of the parish church of Villa Luganese , in the Church of San Biagio in Bellinzona-Ravecchia and in Gravedona in the Church of Santa Maria delle Grazie. On the south wall of the nave is Christ and the Torah Scholars , attributed to the brothers della Rovere called Fiammenghini. A few years later, Fra Bartolomeo will be buried in this church. In 1814 the church was cut in half to make way for the processions.
According to a parchment kept in the cantonal archives of Bellinzona , a church and an oratory "alla beata Maria vergine santissima avvocata" ("the Blessed Virgin and Most Holy Intercessor Mary") were consecrated in 1487 by Rolando, Bishop of Antarado, both of which had been built by the friar and around which a great popular piety had developed. The buildings were subordinated to the Franciscan monastery in Locarno and especially Fra Bartolomeo until his death.
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At the end of the 16th century, construction began on a second church on top of the rock, which was consecrated in 1616. With the coronation of the Madonna del Sasso in the following year, a series of works began to beautify and complete the Sacro Monte. The chapels and the clay sculptures in them date from this time. That of the Last Supper consists of terracotta statues by Francesco Silva from Morbio Inferiore , a modeler who also worked at the Sacro Monte di Varese .
The story of the origins of the sanctuary is written in Latin on a marble slab inside, which is dated July 10, 1624. The inscription mentions the donation of the property to the Franciscan Order by the Masina del Monte family and the consecration of the church by Filippo Archinti, Bishop of Como on May 1st, 1616.
In 1617 the access leading from the Pietà to the pilgrimage site was enlarged, and in 1618 the small tower called the open arcade was built, which leads to the church, with the rooms for the guests in the lower part. In 1619 a path was laid out on the back of the hill with some chapels dedicated to the mysteries of the Rosary , to which the chapels of the Stations of the Cross were added later: in 1620 the chapel of Calvary was built, in 1625 that of Veronica , in 1670 that of Resurrection near the Chapel of Calvary. The work was completed in 1677 with the Chapel of the Assumption .
With a decree of July 25, 1848, the state and republic of the canton of Ticino expropriated the monastery and the pilgrimage site of the Madonna del Sasso and expelled the monastery inmates from the canton. The site was supervised by the Capuchin Father Alessandro da Giornico and since then it has remained in the possession of the canton, while the Capuchins took over the supervision and maintenance of religious affairs
Major works were undertaken between 1891 and 1912, with the entire building complex on the summit of Sacro Monte being heavily rebuilt. The monastery was enlarged, the facade was rebuilt in a Renaissance style (1892), in 1895 small loggias and terraces were added on the east side, and the bell tower was also renewed by the architect Alessandro Ghezzi from Lamone . The choir was then widened with the construction of a retaining wall that completely covered the ledge on which the pilgrimage site rests (1903). Finally, the north side was renewed with the construction of a loggia, which allows access to the choir of the church directly from the monastery. The work was finished in 1912.
This work was carried out on the initiative of the Fratres, albeit with strong internal opposition, in particular from Father Agostino from Vezia , superior of the Ticino Capuchins, and from Fra Bernardo from Andermatt , then the overseer of the monastery. The project and idea of these interventions go back to Fra Angelo Osio from Pesaro . Despite the strong criticism, the intervention was carried out by the Capuchins and financially supported by the local population. In 1918 the church was raised to the rank of a minor basilica .
The first major restorations on the convent, on parts of the Assunta Church and on the Way of the Cross took place between 1974 and 1980 under the direction of the architect Luigi Snozzi . Further important restoration work, subsidized by the state of the Canton of Ticino, took place from 2004 to 2012.
The Flight into Egypt
The Lamentation of Christ
The Lamentation of Christ
The Lamentation of Christ
The Lamentation of Christ
The Lamentation of Christ
art
Of great value is the miraculous statue of the Madonna del Sasso , a wooden work made at the end of the 15th century and attributed to Raffaele Casciaro at Merzagora. Also very valuable and at the same time as the statue of the Virgin is a wooden group of the Descent from the Cross , also known as the Lamentation. It was recently restored and is attributed to the De Donati brothers' workshop. In all likelihood Martino Benzoni is the author of the Entombment with eight wooden statues of the Lamentation of Christ , which was originally created for the Chapel of the Holy Sepulcher in the monastery church of Locarno and was later moved to a corresponding chapel in the pilgrimage site. In the south nave is the altarpiece of the Flight into Egypt by Bramantino (1520), while the third chapel of the north nave contains the altarpiece Christ is brought to the grave , a work by Antonio Ciseri (1870). The "Annunciation" for the Rusca altar (approx. 1502) is the work of Bernardino de Conti . Inside the building complex there are also numerous votive offerings from different times.
Madonna del Sasso with Via Crucis today
Madonna del Sasso with Via Crucis (1890–1900)
organ
The organ was built in 1961 by the organ builders Balbiani, Vegezzi & Bossi. The instrument is divided into two cases : on the epistle side there is the positive and the play system , on the gospel side the main work , swell work and pedal . The organ has 45 registers on three manuals and a pedal. The playing and stop actions are electric.
The disposition of the instrument is as follows:
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literature
- Leone Brughelli (Leone da Lavertezzo): Madonna, del Sasso ob Locarno: history and description of the pilgrimage site. Verlag Kapuziner-Kloster Madonna del Sasso, Locarno 1927.
- Lara Calderari, Simona Martinoli, Patrizio Pedrioli: Il Sacro Monte della Madonna del Sasso a Orselina. Edited by the Society for Swiss Art History GSK, Bern 2015.
- Virgilio Gilardoni : I monumenti d'arte e di storia del Canton Ticino, Locarno e il suo circolo (Locarno, Solduno, Muralto e Orselina). volume I, Società di storia dell'arte in Svizzera, Birkhäuser Verlag, Basilea 1972, pp. 418-478.
- Simona Martinoli u. a .: Madonna del Sasso. In: Guida d'arte della Svizzera italiana. (Ed. GSK), Edizioni Casagrande, Bellinzona 2007, pp. 173-175, ISBN 978-88-7713-482-0 .
- Daniela Pauli Falconi: Madonna del Sasso. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland . August 28, 2008 , accessed January 9, 2020 .
- Celestino Trezzini : Madonna del Sasso. In: Historisch-Biographisches Lexikon der Schweiz , Volume 4, Liebegg - Milan. , Attinger, Neuenburg 1927, p. 715 ( digitized version ).
Web links
- Description Madonna del Sasso in ticino-tourism.ch
- Orselina: inventory of cultural assets of the Canton of Ticino
- Madonna del Sasso TI: A visit to the patron saint of Ticino
- Madonna del Sasso on the ETHorama platform
- Orselina on elexikon.ch
Individual evidence
- ↑ Urban Fink: Bartolomeo Piatti. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland . August 4, 2010 , accessed March 21, 2020 .
- ↑ Emilio Motta: Effemeridi ticinesi. New edition, Edizioni Metà Luna, Giubiasco 1991, p. 19
- ↑ Emilio Motta: Effemeridi ticinesi. P. 8.
- ↑ Silvia Valle Parri: Intorno a Furgnicus: Domenico Pezzi tra letteratura critica e nuovi documenti. In: "Bollettino Storico della Svizzera Italiana", Bellinzona, s. IX (2007), vol. CX, fasc. II; Eadem: Affreschi della cappella del presbiterio di Santa Maria del Sasso a Morcote. , tesi di laurea in storia dell'arte moderna, Università Statale di Milano, relatore Giovanni Agosti, anni 2007/2008
- ^ Siro Borrani : Il Ticino Sacro. Memorie Religose della Svizzera Italiana raccolte dal sacerdote Siro Borrani prevosto di Losone. Tipografia e Libreria Cattolica di Giovanni Grassi, Lugano 1896, pp. 253-260, 337-338
- ↑ Rolf Amgarten: The New Jerusalem and the Muscovites. Tessiner Zeitung, 23 December 2016, page 2
- ↑ More information about the organ ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (Italian) on orgelddokumentationszentrum.ch/it
Coordinates: 46 ° 10 '30.7 " N , 8 ° 47' 37" E ; CH1903: seven hundred and four thousand six hundred and thirty-three / 114650