San Benedetto Vecchio
| San Benedetto Vecchio | |
|---|---|
 facade |
|
| Construction time: | 1195-1222 |
| Inauguration: | 1222 |
| Architectural style : | Romanesque, baroque |
| Client: | Giordano Forzatè |
| Location: | 45 ° 24 '34.6 " N , 11 ° 52' 1.5" E |
| Location: |
Padua Padua , Veneto , Italy |
| Purpose: | roman catholic parish church |
The Church of San Benedetto , called the Church of San Benedetto Vecchio for centuries (not to be confused with the nearby Church of San Benedetto Novello), is a building of medieval origin overlooking the San Benedetto Riviera, towards Bacchiglione , in Padua . The building with the adjoining Benedictine monastery was built on behalf of Blessed Giordano Forzatè.
history
As Portenari reports, the Church of St. Benedict was built in 1195 at the instigation of Giordano Forzatè with the Benedictine monastery "with various cloisters and living areas for monks and nuns and he ruled for many years with the title of Prior" and the Annales Patavini and the Regiminum Padue Books cited. Some documents indicate that the monastery was founded near a hospital. The double monastery with a female community under the direction of an abbess and the male community under the direction of the prior was intended only for nuns after the death of the founder (1248), while the monks built a new location with the church of San Benedetto Novello (1262) . The sources report that the church, consecrated on August 31, 1222, originally stood in the center of the monastery and divided the male and female parts. After the split, the monastery flourished so intensely that between 1356 and 1397 the abbess Anna Buzzaccarini, sister-in-law of the Prince of Padua, Francesco il Vecchio, decorated it richly at her own expense. Orsola Buzzaccarini followed Anna and gave the Church of Sant'Orsola (1402) to the Reformed Franciscans. A few decades later, the young student Caterina Cornaro came here, where she received lessons until she was fourteen.
The church remained unchanged until 1612, when the abbess Aurora da Camposampiero carried out adjustments , probably after the liturgical reforms of the Council of Trent . The orientation was changed and the facade, which was initially oriented to the west, to the east, where the presbytery was originally located. Portenari mentions that around 1620 it was "reduced to a beautiful shape and simply decorated". On July 3, 1628, Cardinal Pietro Valier made a pastoral visit “bene tecta, ampla et alba”. In the following decades the building was decorated with new works of art and altars.
With the Napoleonic church legislation of 1810, the Benedictine monastery was abolished and converted into an artillery barracks. The church became a parish church and took over the parish of San Leonardo.
At the beginning of the 20th century the building was restored several times. On March 11, 1944, it was hit by the Allied bombs, which devastated the building and destroyed numerous works of art, including the narrative cycle of the Apocalypse by Giusto de 'Menabuoi . In the first post-war period, restoration work began taking into account the Romanesque aspects.
Today, in continuation of the Napoleonic decrees, the church is a parish church entrusted to the secular clergy of the Diocese of Padua .
Next to the church is the "Prandina" barracks, which is located on the former Benedictine monastery.
In the church is Giustiniana Wynne buried.
description
Outside
The facade
The facade, in a large tree-lined churchyard (originally paved), faces east. The current appearance is due to the work in the 17th century. The wall formed the apse of the church until the 16th century. It shows a composite order and respects the refined Mannerist style features that have been in trend in the city since the second half of the 16th century and are associated with the works of Dario Varotari. It rises on two levels, each punctuated by thin pilasters finished with refined Tuscan (lower) and Ionic capitals. At the end there is an attic crowned by statues with a tympanum in the middle. There is a single portal with a tympanum and two niches and two windows on the sides, with four square windows above. In the center of the tympanum is a high relief depicting the Eternal Father who joins in glory with Saint Benedict below. In Padovanino's painting, which depicts Blessed Forzatè and is in the church, the building is depicted before the facade is built.
Romanesque facade
On the left side of the facade, there is an alley that allows a view of the Romanesque side of the church, with individual monoforas and interrupted by arched friezes . At the back, even if it is hidden by buildings and the bell tower, one can see the old Romanesque facade of the church, with biforas and small blind arcades .
Campanile
Today's slim appearance, with four individual pointed arched windows and a tambour covered with an onion-shaped dome, dates from the 18th century. It consists of the remains of the medieval bell tower, which already existed with bifors and a conical tower.
Inside
After passing the entrance door, one enters a charming interior, which is divided into three aisles that converge at the monumental high altar. After the restoration work in the post-war period, the warm color of the terracotta dominates. The round arches are supported by columns and the blind arcades are decorated with the colors of the coat of arms of the city of Padua, which is also depicted on the walls. The central nave is covered with a timber framework, while the side aisles have a ribbed vault.
presbytery
The grandiose baroque high altar, the work (1663) by Girolamo Galeazzo Veri, stands on the old Romanesque inner facade. The almost architectural backdrop, which is based on the marble colors black and white, is refined by seven statues of Benedictine and Paduan saints by Tommaso Allio and by the large altarpiece by Alessandro Maganza depicting the Transfiguration . The tabernacle with numerous angels is remarkable. On the walls, on which the Romanesque arches were made visible, there are three paintings, including Moses making the water gush by Alessandro Varotari (donated in the 18th century by Count Girolamo Dotto) and Jesus Christ shares bread with the apostles to the starving People from by Francesco Minorello. Above the wooden chairs along the walls are fourteen Gothic terracotta statues that may have adorned the church as early as the 17th century.
Right nave
In the chapel next to the presbytery, which was decorated with frescoes in the 18th century, there is the beautiful altarpiece by Domenico Robusti , depicting the Ascension of Jesus Christ with Saint Peter dictating the Gospel to Saint Mark , and below them Saint Jerome , Dominicus and Thecla , commissioned by the patrician Marco Querini. Once the chapel was reserved for the nuns who followed the mass behind the large bars.
On the altar in the side aisle is the body of Blessed Giordano Forzatè, covered with papal insignia. Above it is an altarpiece depicting him looking at the plan of the monastery by Alessandro Varotari .
Left nave
On the three baroque altars, which are located along the side aisle, there are interesting works by Pietro Damini, the altarpiece Transito di san Benedetto , by Luca da Reggio , that of the Virgin of Loreto above Saint Helena (from the demolished church of San Leonardo) and from Giulio Campagnola a San Gerolamo della cerchia . The baptismal font next to the entrance seems to be on a sacrificial altar from Roman times. Above is a small 17th century painting depicting the baptism of Christ. Next to the entrance door there are remains of frescoes from the 13th century, including a rare burial.
The music and the organ
The music of the Benedictines
The pastoral visits , which were carried out between the 17th and 18th centuries, give the opportunity to present quite comprehensively the liturgical and musical course of the Church of that time. The nuns could only watch the mass from the chapel with the grille leading to the presbytery (the chapel in the right aisle) or from the choir on the inner facade, hidden behind curtains. In 1657 the bishop noticed some violent conflicts within the community of 46 nuns. The disputes were initiated by some nuns (Speronella Speroni and Faustina Stefani) "against the obligation to sing and play the organ". Bishop Giorgio Cornaro was even bolder in 1717 when he commanded that the chant should be "a fixed, monastic and godly song, so as not to praise God for vanity and courtesy, with loss of merit and perhaps with the burden of perdition" and therefore "prohibited all kinds of figurative singing, all musical instruments in the choir with the exception of the organ and the spinet, for the sound of the voices", subject to the right to appoint the nuns' music master.
Organ by Giovan Battista Antegnati
From the work Arte Organaria by Costanzo Antegnati we know that there was an instrument by Giovan Battista Antegnati in the church of San Benedetto Vecchio , which was built between 1536 and 1539 and whose other essential documentation has not survived. It was only in a contract from 1899 that the organ was once again clearly referred to, when Fabbricieri made an agreement with Malvestio to restore an organ whose characteristics are not known and which is already present in the choir.
Ruffatti's organ
The current organ, built in the 1950s by the organ company Fabbrica Organi Ruffatti, is located on the choir on the inner facade and replaces an earlier Ruffatti instrument that was destroyed by the 1944 bombing. The fully electric action consists of a case limited to the base and a principal arranged as a palisade . The console has two manuals with 61 keys each and a concave-radial pedal with 32 keys, with the controls for the register, the connections and the plate clutch.
curiosity
In the center of the cloister, which was next to the right aisle of the church, according to the chronicle, a cornel grew out of the stick that Blessed Giordano Forzatè used to mark the size of the monastery on the ground. The plant with wonderful powers was so powerful that its fruits were distributed to feverish people and if one of the nuns or a member of the Capodilista house (descendants of the blessed founder) had to die, a branch of it dried up. After the abolition of the monastery, the Cornelian cherry was dug up and transported to San Daniele and planted in the garden of the Palazzo Capodilista, where it is believed to still thrive today with its alleged eight hundred and more years.
literature
- Giovambattista Rossetti: Descrizione delle pitture, sculture, ed architetture di Padova . In: Padova MDCCLXXX Stamperia del Seminario . (Italian).
- Giannantonio Moschini: Guida per la città di Padova . Atesa editrice (Italian).
- Padova Basiliche e chiese . Neri Pozza Editore (Italian).
- Giuseppe Toffanin: Le strade di Padova . Newton e Compton Editori (Italian).
- Padova . Medoacus (Italian).
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ ref A. Portenari, 1623, p 471