Oratorio di San Mercurio

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Facade of the Oratorio di San Mercurio in Palermo

The Oratorio di San Mercurio is a Baroque church building in Palermo .

Building description

Located in Via dei Benedettini, the oratory was built in 1572 by the Saint Mercurius Society ( Compagnia di San Mercurio ) near a source believed to be miraculous.

A staircase leads to the interior of the oratory through a door with a blown segmented gable . The design of the hall-like, relatively high room probably goes back to Paolo Amato . In particular, the baroque shape of the windows and other details refer to the great model Amatos, the Roman architect Francesco Borromini .

The walls are richly decorated with stucco reliefs made by the Serpotta family of plasterers. The year 1678 is listed on a sign on the left inner wall, probably the time when the stucco was created. The Serpotta expert Donald Garstang has ascribed the work to Giacomo Serpotta , who would have done the first significant work when he was twenty-two, probably under the supervision of his brother Giuseppe , who was three years older than him. In favor of Giacomo's authorship, he said, in the treatment of the individual groups of figures, despite all the technical imperfections, there was a high degree of individuality in expression, which would later become significant for his work.

A curved organ gallery with a gilded balustrade is attached above the entrance to the inner facade . The groups of putti making music on both sides of the organ are dated by Garstang to the second decade of the 18th century and ascribed to Procopio Serpotta .

literature

  • Donald Garstang: Giacomo Serpotta and the stuccatori of Palermo 1560-1790. A. Zwemmer Ltd., London 1984, ISBN 0-302-00550-1 ( Studies in Architecture 22).
  • Exhibition folder “Itinari Serpottiani” Arti Grafice Giordano. Palermo 1996.
  • Adriana Chirco: Palermo la città ritrovata. Flaccovio, Palermo 2002, ISBN 88-7758-469-6 .
  • Pierfrancesco Palazzotto: Palermo. Guida agli oratori. Confraternite, compagnie e congregazioni dal XVI al XIX secolo . Kalós, Palermo 2004, ISBN 88-89224-07-X .

Web links

Coordinates: 38 ° 6 ′ 35.2 "  N , 13 ° 21 ′ 15.3"  E