Sant'Alessandro Maggiore (Lucca)
Sant'Alessandro Maggiore is a Romanesque church in Lucca . It owes its early medieval appearance, which has been preserved in rare uniformity, to careful restoration work between 1838 and 1840. The great importance of the building results from the fact that it is the most faithful example of Lucca's early Romanesque style. The classic shape of the building is based on the model effect of ancient Roman architecture for the architecture of the Middle Ages. Like other medieval buildings in Tuscany, for example in Florence with the incrustation style , the church of Sant'Alessandro Maggiore has a number of building elements that take up late antique models. At the same time, numerous Roman spoils were used. Inside the construction corresponds to a three-aisle , across loose house basilica with semicircular apse the basic type of early Christian churches.
history
Although much research has been carried out on this, the question of the origins of the building remains largely unanswered. The beginning of construction of the church, first mentioned in 893, can only be deduced from its architectural features. Due to their stylistic similarity to the Basilica of San Frediano, these suggest an origin around 1060, when the Bishop of Lucca Anselmo da Baggio (later Pope Alexander II ) moved the relics of Pope Alexander I from Rome into the crypt of the Church of Sant'Alessandro Maggiore was convicted.
architecture
Today's building shows two different construction phases:
- (9th or 11th century) The lower façade with the portal in the classic style and the white surface, which is criss-crossed by stripes in delicate gray, similar to the Roman opus quadratum pseudoisodomum; the western part of the colonnades, with columns made of different colored marbles and with ancient and medieval Corinthian capitals, which philologically reflect the decorative motifs of the 1st – 2nd centuries. Repeat century (but often according to late antique paratactic arrangement). As in early Christian basilicas in Rome, columns and capitals are arranged symmetrically to point to a liturgical path.
- (11th or / and 12th century) The eastern part of the building with monochrome colonnades, Romanesque capitals and simple masonry; the entire upper facade and the upper part of the facade as well as the decoration of the apse closure with a Lombard-type hanging arch.
The vaults (16th century) and the aedicula, which were added to the side portal in the 15th century, date from a later period.
As a link between antiquity and its “rebirth” in the 15th century, Sant'Alessandro Maggiore is an important representative of Tuscan architecture in the Middle Ages.
literature
- FW Deichmann: Pillar and order in early Christian architecture. In: Communications of the German Archaeological Institute, Roman Department . Volume LIV, 1939.
- CL Ragghianti: Architettura lucchese e architettura pisana. In: Critica d'arte. Volume 28, 1949 pp. 168-72.
- CL Ragghianti: Il Sant'Alessandro di Lucca. In: L'arte in Italia. Volume II, Rome 1968.
- C. Baracchini, A. Caleca: Architettura "medievale" in Lucchesia. 1-2. In: Critica d'Arte. Volume 113-114, 1970.
- V. Regoli: Restauri nella chiesa di Sant'Alessandro, 1838. In AA.VV., Lorenzo Nottolini architetto a Lucca. Lucca 1970.
- Hugo Brandenburg: Rome's early Christian basilicas of the 4th century. Munich 1979.
- R. Silva: La chiesa di Sant'Alessandro Maggiore in Lucca. Lucca 1987.
- UW Gans: Corinthian capitals of the Roman Empire - decorative capitals in Italy and the north-western provinces. Cologne / Weimar / Vienna 1992.
- J. Poeschke (Hrsg.): Ancient Spolien in the architecture of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. Munich 1996.
- R. Silva: La chiesa di Sant'Alessandro tra archeologia e ricerca documentaria. In: Max Seidel, Romano Silva (ed.): Lucca città d'arte ei suoi archivi. Opere d'arte e testimonianze documentarie dal Medioevo al Novecento. Art History Institute in Florence, Venice 2001, pp. 59–96.
- G. Carrai: Tradizione tardoantica e derive medievali nella chiesa di Sant'Alessandro a Lucca. Lucca 2002.
- Taddei C., Lucca tra XI e XII secolo. Territorio, architetture, città , in Quaderni di Storia dell'Arte , n.23 , pp. 117-156, Parma 2005.
- Tigler G., Toscana romanica , pp. 245-247, Milan 2006.
- M. Frati, Architettura romanica a Lucca (XI-XII secolo). Snodi critici e paesaggi storici , in Chiara Bozzoli - Maria Teresa Filieri (a cura di), Scoperta armonia. Arte medievale a Lucca , pp. 177–224, Lucca 2014.
- G. Carrai, La chiesa di Sant'Alessandro Maggiore a Lucca: un exemplum di architettura sacra come figura teologica , Lucca 2017.
Web links
Coordinates: 43 ° 50 ′ 32.1 ″ N , 10 ° 30 ′ 4.6 ″ E