San Giorgio (Genoa)
The Church of San Giorgio is a religious building in the historic center of Genoa , located in Piazza San Giorgio.
history
Military and the old place
The St. George cult in Genoa is said to have been introduced in the Byzantine period. From then on he remained associated with the army. The saint was already a protector of the Byzantine militia and was venerated by the military. It is located on the Vexillum in San Giorgio, the military banner of the Republic of Genoa, which was placed next to the scepter of the commanders of the army.
Today's Piazza San Giorgio, on which the church stands, is said to have been the city's Roman forum. In fact, the custom of summoning people here was maintained until the early Middle Ages. In addition, the distances in Roman miles on the Roman roads Aurelia and Postumia are calculated from here (hence the names Quarto - IV milium , Sestri - VI milium , Pontedecimo - Pons ad X milium ).
The connection between St. George and the Byzantine army suggests a church or chapel that stood for him at this point. In Genoa the Byzantines maintained a strong garrison, which was led in 544 by Bono, the nephew of General Giovanni. The first chapel of S. Giorgio would have been built in the forum next to the military garrison.
First news and granting of parishes
The first document confirming the existence of the Church dates back to 947. From 964, the third year of Otto I's reign in Italy , there is a parchment that the chapel of San Giorgio in connection with the trade between Eldeprando, son of Zangulfo, and Teodolfo, Bishop of Genoa.
In January 1139 the Consoli donated to the sons of Rolando and Guidone da Paxano (from Passano) in the church of San Giorgio. Accordingly, the church was considered a collegiate church and no longer just a chapel or basilica. Siro de 'Porcello, who became the first archbishop of Genoa in 1132 (the Genoese diocese was established from 1132 to 1138), had the register of the archbishop's curia completed in 1143. In the early Middle Ages, the smaller churches were usually oratories or basilicas. By order of Siros, they were converted into parishes dependent on the cathedral. The office given to the pastors took place with the consent of the bishop and his canons, who were called "cardinales", "de cardine" or "cardines". The same procedure takes place with the subordinate churches of the parishes in the diocese. The parishes then receive a chapter from canons headed by a provost . The leaders of the city's seven churches were elected by the archbishops, who also appointed the abbots of Santo Stefano , San Siro and San Benigno.
San Giorgio in the Middle Ages
In 1147, San Giorgi was offered the Almería military company. From conquered Almeria the two bronze doors are brought into the church by clergyman Vassallo.
In 1379, for the victory of Luciano Doria over the Venetians under the direction of Vittor Pisani, an altar dedicated to Saint John was erected in San Giorgio and on May 6th a golden pallium was solemnly consecrated by the lords of the city together with the inhabitants .
In the middle of the 15th century the altar of Saint Berhard was added, a saint whose latest cult spread quickly and who was looked after by the merchants' guild. In December 1454 the provost, the two canons, the chapter, the merchants' guild and the notary Andrea de Cario meet for approval. To the left of the entrance, the altar still existed in the 18th century, but was already in ruins.
Rebuilding
In 1550 the medieval church became dangerous and the parishioners asked the provost Bernardo Boero and the scholar Gio Batta Chiappe to replace it. The application was neglected and the church was not in use for twelve years. The parishioners then asked the Pope to repair and rebuild them at their own expense. Pope Paul IV , the Theatine Gian Pietro Carafa , commissioned the Genoese Archbishop Agostino Salvago with the bull of August 9, 1565.
The giuspatronato was issued in 1566 only to resident parishioners. In addition to the giuspatronato , the residents received the Ius Nominandi in perpetuo del prevosto . With the Apostolic Letter of April 14, 1564, the administration of the parish is given to the “scholar” Gio Batta Chiappe.
The renovation is going slowly. On October 13, 1585, the provost pays an invoice for the restoration work. The aristocrat Nicolò Raggi set an example for the reconstruction and commissioned Luca Cambiaso with the execution of the frescoes. This cycle of images was later destroyed by Gio Battista Castello in the 17th century with new frescoes. It is likely that Luca Cambiaso was also commissioned to paint the three cloths for the choir between 1570 and 1580, including that of the Beheading of San Giorgio, considered one of his masterpieces.
In 1608 the provost Gio Batta Chiappe dies. The parishioners elect his successor, Pastor Gio Maria Gando, an election confirmed by Archbishop Orazio Spinol. (Notarial deed by Marc'Antonio Molfino of January 31, 1609).
The Theatines in San Giorgio
The order of the Theatines was founded in Rome in 1524 by Kajetan von Thiene together with his companions Gian Pietro Carafa (the future Pope Paul IV ), Bonifacio de Colli and Paolo Consiglieri o Ghisleri and introduced in Genoa in the second half of the 16th century, but without a place of residence in the city. First it was in Santa Maria Maddalena, then on August 15, 1575 in San Siro .
On May 31, 1624, the Archbishop of Genoa, Domenico De Marini, gave permission in a letter to Carlo Barberini, a Theatine from San Siro , to open an oratorio at San Giorgio in a house belonging to them. In June 1624 , the Theatines opened a church on the ground floor of a house in Piazza San Giorgio, dedicated to Saint Carlo Borromeo. The opening took place in August 1624, but this was not well received by the provost of San Giorgio, as he saw it as competition. Protests from the community of San Giorgio led to the closure of this church by the Senate. On March 2, 1629, however, the church was returned and the Theatiners were able to return to celebrate mass there.
The situation was resolved in March 1629 with the death of Gio Maria Gando, provost of San Giorgio. The same giuspatronato of San Giorgio is proposed to the Theatines of San Siro by the parishioners themselves, who thereby renounce their giuspatronato over the church. Pope Urban VIII officially confirmed the permission in an apostolic letter dated May 30, 1629. The new provost of the Theatines was Ottavio Ferrari. Disagreements with Archbishop De Marini still delay the inauguration of the Theatines, which takes place between 1631 and 1632.
The priest Campanaro had to leave the Church of San Giorgio by order of the Congregation of Rome, which was entrusted to the Theatine Fathers and the Priest Domenico Giordano.
Rebuilding the church
With the entry of the Theatiner, the renovation work will also resume. In September 1657 , Father Giovanni Battista Bertolotti and Gio Francesco da Dieci asked Archbishop Stefano Durazzo for permission to extend the building on the grounds that they wanted to follow the will of the Theatine novice of the Da Dieci family, who paid an amount for this purpose had left behind. However, the request is unsuccessful.
On May 11, 1658, the request reached the Pope. Two years later, Pope Alexander VII granted them absolute rule over the church and the parish.
After that, construction will start, but the name of the architect is unknown. The church is twice as large in both plan and height. A first draft of the drawings remains with an oval dome supported by four columns. The unknown architect left a French inscription in which he spoke of the oval dome. There is also a second draft dated July 26, 1697 with an illegible signature, a round dome and eight instead of four columns. This plan is similar to the one implemented.
The dome
For the design of the dome, William Piastra suggested the design of Giovanni Antonio Viscardi, an architect of the second half of the 17th century. Between 1692 and 1695 he had worked for the Theatiner. Then he returned to Germany, where he worked for a long time in the first decade of the 18th century. Viscardi built the Maria Hilf pilgrimage church in Freystadt . Despite the regional differences, the dome is arranged in such a way that it covers the entire interior of the church, pushing the facades outwards and enlarging the center.
The planning process was completed by adopting the plan by the architect Giacomo Lagomaggiore, approved in 1695 by the Magistrate of the Parish Fathers, who insisted on the expansion of the streets in Via Giustiniani and in Piazza San Giorgio.
In 1701 both the outer walls and the dome of San Giorgio were completed and in 1700 the church consecration was renewed.
Reconstruction of the dome and the bureaucratic battle
The last pastor of the Theatines is Leandro Nasi, who died on June 2nd, 1800. In the same year he was followed by pastor Gerolamo Vannenes, a member of the secular clergy who held the parish until March 10, 1816. The dome was first set in 1812 and repaired almost immediately at the city's expense according to a design by master Agostino Pareto. Like many others, the church suffered numerous property confiscations, which Pastor Vannenes stubbornly defended.
On January 6, 1821, part of the dome collapsed. The building authority ensures the removal of the rubble and arranges for a quick restoration, but claims not to have to bear the costs for the scaffolding left to the church. The office also informs the pastor that the city treasury would only pay up to a certain date, but would interrupt it at that time, which they are entitled to according to the law on church maintenance of December 30, 1809. It was a misinterpretation of this rule that the city administration put together for lack of money and demanded payment from the pastor for scaffolding and restoration.
On February 6, 1822, Pietro Rell, pastor of San Giorgio, contacted the Archbishop and the Internal Affairs Secretariat of Turin to reclaim the annual donation for the patron saint. Pietro Rell points out the extraordinary nature of the event and the analogy with what happened to San Lorenzo and San Pietro in Banchi. That San Giorgio has the same age and therefore the same right to restoration at the expense of the city council. In addition, the city had retained all of San Giorgio's property. The Theatine monastic assets were illegally confiscated with the property of the parish belonging to San Giorgio, so that the community could no longer bear any costs.
The pastor threatens to turn to Turin. The city justified it in a letter to Count Roger Gaspero Gerolamo, Interior Minister of Karl Felix . The minister asks the Genoese Archbishop Luigi Lambruschini for clarification, who in turn informs Pastor Rell. The parish priest sends a document to Turin stating that the Serenissimi Collegi paid an annual sum to the parish for the eternal oil of the lamps on the altar of St. George until shortly before 1815. For civil administration, however, these fees were due to the state treasury and not to the parish. On February 13, 1822, the Secretariat of the Ministry of the Interior sent its reply from Turin, but work was halted during 1822.
On January 8, 1823, the building department ordered the church administration to repair the dome at their own expense. The pastor disagreed and sent the mayor the answer from Turin. Then, a few months later, the building authorities issued notices to dismantle the structure of the dome. On August 5, 1822, Carlo Barabino , the head of the building department, came to San Giorgio to justify the injunction with public safety, to remove the dome and then to remove the scaffolding. Rell's letters of reply were not sent to the members of the Corpo Decurionale. The pastor was panicked by the intrusion of Barabino and the confrontation with orders to cover the church. Another request to remove the scaffolding comes in September of the same year.
Thus began a long bureaucratic struggle carried out by correspondence with reference to previous church administration laws and petitions to the Turin authorities . The problem wasn't resolved until 1825 when Rell was eventually returned to some improperly stolen property. He used this, along with the donations from the faithful, to complete the rebuilding of the church.
19th century works
Between 1816 and 1821 improvements were made to the baptistery, the altar of Sant'Andrea Avellino, the Nostra Signora della Misericordia, and others. Pietro Rell probably died in 1836, ill and probably replaced by Giuseppe Terrile a few years ago. The latter officially succeeded him on January 25, 1836 with the decree of Archbishop Placido Maria Tadini.
Tadini wanted to renew the statue of Our Lady of Mercy , in his opinion it should be "dressed", but he decided not to use the available sums for other expenses. In February 1840 Giacomo Celesia donated a marble statue of the Madonna. The chapel to the right of the painting by Sant'Andrea Avellino is being restored with the help of Giuseppe Storace. In order to make the church more symmetrical in the two central chapels, it was decided to place the painting of San Gaetano di Thiene in the small chapel on the right (second, it would be dedicated to Our Lady of Mercy and, on the left, to the Archangel Raphael. ). Work began in August 1840 and was completed the following year with the blessing of the statue of Our Lady of Mercy donated by Celesia . In the upper part of the chapel, the stories of Esther before Ahasuerus are painted by Giuseppe Isola. The ornaments come from Gerolamo Centenaro.
Further work was carried out in the second half of the century, paid for by the stonemason Michele Romagnino. In 1888 the equipment of the large chapel was completed on the right with a marble altar, which was decorated with various fine marble work.
On October 17, 1844, Antonio Ramorino, a resident of St. Petersburg , donated a painting by Claudio Cohelo, a Spanish painter and follower of Rubens, to the church. The work, “Saint Mary of Sorrows with the Son laid in her arms on the cross,” is in the third chapel on the left, where the wooden cross was. In the arches above the stands frescoes by Giuseppe Isola with the evangelists. In 1851, marble, balustrades, stucco and gilding were installed in the chapel of San Gaetano di Thiene at the expense of Giacomo Pittaluga, according to an inscription on site.
Construction of the facade
The facade, which was still made of rough masonry, was not yet finished. In 1859 a design by the architect Andrea Carpineti was proposed and submitted to the city council. Small variations are imposed on it by the municipal office in order to e.g. B. remove the base and propose the painting. With the acceptance of these clauses, the facade design was approved on April 5, 1859.
Work begins shortly afterwards. After removing the plinth, the marble pilaster strips are added, the capitals are connected by stucco furniture and the two side doors are inserted. In the rectangular room at the top of the facade, Giuseppe Isola painted a fresco of St. George, which has now almost completely disappeared. Pastor Giuseppe Terrile died on October 23, 1869 . On this occasion, the bust of the Terrile by Giuseppe Molinari will be unveiled, located on the outside of the first chapel on the left and currently in the sacristy .
On June 21, 1871, Giuseppe Parodi became pastor, who in 1872 appointed a Saint Joseph and the Way of the Cross built in 1879 from the painter Santo Panario. In the same years he bought the marble pulpit.
In 1884 another rockfall damaged the dome. The town hall issues an injunction for repairs. The church administration has no funds and is directed to the general treasurer for church services in Turin. In 1890 the dome was repaired, but on December 19, 1892 the board of directors Eugenio Broccardi decided to strengthen it. In 1885 stucco and marble for the chapel of Blessed Marinoni and in 1887 for the chapel of Catherine of Genoa with stucco by Centanaro and marble and gilding by Giuseppe Massardo.
At the beginning of the 20th century, the provost Giuseppe Parodi restored the columns with jasper from Sicily in the middle and alternating ribbons made of brokatello from Spain and old yellow from Siena. An African breccia is used for the base . Finally, four lapis lazuli sticks for wall pillars and a ribbon with symbols are placed.
Bell tower and bridge to the church
The bell tower of the church was the old Alberici tower. In order to adapt it to the new function, the crenellated end section was replaced by the two floors of the 17th and 18th centuries, the first with a square floor plan, the other with a round floor plan and a small dome. This bell tower was integrated into the restored monastery building at the end of the 17th century. It is statically unstable because its foundation lies on the river parallel to the Clavica dei Giustiniani. In the same century, a bridge was built from the bell tower to the monastery.
On February 9, 1847, the plan to restore the bridge, drawn up by the architect Carpineti, was presented to the mayors of the city. In August 1847, the Corpo Decurionale gave its approval on the condition that the iron and glass overpass was easier than planned. The wrought iron rosettes were removed from the bell tower because they were unsafe. They were arranged on the four hemispheres at the corners of the terrace of the bell tower. The wrought-iron Saint George had also been removed beforehand. Further repairs to the tower were: a fortification in 1894, repairs after damage caused by a thunderstorm in 1935, change of the key of the connection in 1938 and repairs after bomb damage in 1945. In 1836 there were three of the four bronze bells that, unlike the other bells, were not removed after the decree of April 23, 1942.
Damage from World War II
The bombing of October 23, 1942 only caused damage to the roof and service areas. That of August 13, 1944 caused considerable damage and brought down the Palazzo Lagorio on the corner of Vicoli del Fumo and San Giorgio. The parts of the wall breached the church wall near the Altar of Mercy, where the altar, predella and balustrades will be destroyed, but the statues of the Virgin and Blessed Botta remain intact in the rubble.
The repairs to the Sovrintendenza from 1944 are directed by Superintendent Carlo Ceschi. The brick wall is erected quickly and the cost estimate submitted to the War Damage Commission in Pammatone.
Pastor Rodolfo Serra, together with the Parish Department of Fine Arts and parishioners, is responsible for the restoration of the Altar of Mercy. The fresco by Giuseppe Isola di Ester e Assuero, a photo of which has been preserved in the sacristy of the church, has been lost.
The last pastor of San Giorgio, Monsignor Serra, died in 1952. On March 7, 1961, the parish of San Giorgio was abolished; the pastor of San Lorenzo took over the leadership and the title was transferred to Sestri Ponente.
The church is currently temporarily headed by the Genoese Orthodox Church . In particular, the functions of the Church of the Most Holy Transfiguration, which is dependent on the Patriarchate of Moscow , are located there.
Works
From the right:
- First Chapel of Saint Catherine of Genoa: Altarpiece by Domenico Guidobono with "Patient Christ and Saint Catherine of Genoa". The chapel was decorated according to the inscription in 1883 at the expense of the Iccardo sisters.
- Second chapel, Our Lady of Mercy, dedicated to Our Lady of the Savonian Miracle of March 18, 1536. Statue of the Madonna donated by Celesia and a statue, of mediocre craftsmanship, of Blessed Antonio Botta, the local peasant protagonist of the Savonese apparition.
- Third chapel, by San Gaetano di Thiene: Altarpiece with the patron who receives the child from the Madonna by Domenico Piola. According to an inscription, the donation for the realization of Pittaluga dates from 1751.
- Sancta Sanctorum, offset in 1851: “Beheading of St. George” by Luca Cambiaso , with a few weak colors, but with a strong chiaroscuro, like the “Pietà” by the same artist in the Basilica of Santa Maria Assunta in Carignano , which is in the last period of the artist can be dated. There are mediocre frescoes from the mid-19th century above the altar. (The Holy Spirit hovers over Caos, the pelican symbol of Christ the Redeemer, the eagle symbol of innocence).
- Di Luca Cambiaso: "St. George in the cauldron" and "Martyrdom of St. George on the bike".
These Cambiaso paintings were restored by Filippo Bernacca between September 1851 and October 1852. Outside the Sancta Sanctorum there are three gravestones on the floor. The one on the left, which is difficult to read today, dates from 1677; the others, illegible, are contemporary. To the left of the Sancta Sanctorum:
- Fourth Chapel, Our Lady of Suffering: Jesus is placed in the lap of Our Lady, by Claudio Cohelo, Spanish painter; “Sacred Heart of Jesus Christ” from Santo Panario
- Fifth Chapel of Archangel Raphael: Dedicated to Saint Charles Borromeo before 1811, it was the chapel of the Brotherhood that was united in 1612 to form the Brotherhood of Saints Ambrose and Charles Borromeo and in 1613 received two particles of the pianeta of Saint Charles Borromeo from Cardinal Federigo Borromeo of Milan . The painting of the Archangel by Gerolamo Costa is housed in a gilded wooden frame. A fresco in the lunette is by Giuseppe Passano.
- Last chapel on the left of Blessed Angelo Marinoni, one of the first followers of Gaetano da Thiene, whose cult was given by Innocent XIII. Was recognized in 1762. Above the windows and in the sides of the dome are the Four Evangelists by Giuseppe Isola.
Individual evidence
- ↑ The right to nominate a candidate for a ministry. Johann Georg Ritter von Möske (Ed.): Tractatus de juribus incorporalibus. Reprinted from the Austrian Codex . Vienna 1807 ( google.at ).
Web links
- Ristorante San Giorgio Genova - Nella vita ci sono, la musica, l'arte, lo sport e tutto il resto… il cibo ne fa parte.
- Chiesa di San Giorgio | Visitgenoa.it
Coordinates: 44 ° 24 '26.6 " N , 8 ° 55' 44.4" E