Santuario della Madonna di San Luca

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Santuario della Beata Vergine di San Luca

The Santuario della Madonna di San Luca , completely Santuario della Beata Vergine di San Luca ("Sanctuary of the Most Blessed Virgin of St. Luke"), is a church located just outside Bologna on the Colle della Guardia , a partially wooded hill with a height of about 300  m slm the sanctuary is out of town from Porta Saragozza, one of the ancient gates of Bologna, on the nearly four-kilometer portico Portico di San Luca reachable. This runs along Via Saragozza, which it crosses at its end via the monumental Arco del Meloncello from 1732, and then leads up to the sanctuary. The church has had the title of minor basilica since 1907 .

The legend tells of Azzolina and Beatrice, the founders of a small monastery, who kept an icon of the Mother of God Hodegetria with the baby Jesus. The picture is said to have been stolen from Byzantium by a pilgrim in 1160 and given to the monastery. The monastery has been steadily expanded over the centuries, the current structure was built in 1723 by Carlo Francesco Dotti over a previous building. The side loggias were completed by Giovanni Giacomo Dotti in 1774 based on his father's designs.

The interior of the sanctuary, built on the plan of a Greek cross , is decorated with works of art by Donato Creti , Guido Reni , Vittorio Bigari , Guercino and Domenico Pestrini . The silver, protective cover of the portrait was made by the gold and silversmith Jan Jacobs from Flanders in 1625.

The veneration of Mary in the pilgrimage church

The Madonna ascribed to the Evangelist Luke
Archway (2013)

According to tradition, the pilgrims Theokles by the monks the Basilica was Hagia Sophia in Constantinople Opel a Lukas image , so a the Evangelist Luke attributed image of the Mother of God , to put it on the "Wachhügel" ( Italian Colle della Guardia to preserve). Theocles set out for Italy to look for the guard hill, which, as he learned in Rome from Senator Pascipovero, was near Bologna. Here he handed the picture to the bishop Gerardo Grassi, who on May 8th 1160 entrusted it to the two pious women Azzolina and Beatrice Guezi, who lived as hermits on the hill. The picture board was in a St. Luke consecrated kept small church and was soon venerated by the people. Angelica Bofantini left the church in 1194 with the support of Pope Coelestin III. expand.

In the spring of 1433, when Blessed Niccolò Albergati was bishop of the city, heavy rains threatened the harvest. In order to prevent a famine, Graziolo Accarisi, an adviser to the council, suggested, following a custom in Florence , that the icon should be carried down into the city in a procession and that the rain should stop. When the icon was carried into town on July 5th, the rain actually subsided. There was a big celebration with a three-day procession through town and the image was brought back to the sanctuary. At the request of the people, this procession was repeated every year.

The veneration of this image of the Virgin became so widespread that it was decided to build a long archway from the Saragossa city gate to the sanctuary to protect the image from the weather on the way into the city. All townspeople of every year from 1674 to 1793 carried this building and it consists of 666 arches and 15 chapels. With its 3.7 km length, it is probably the longest arcade in the world. At the Arco del Meloncello there is also the Portico della Certosa , which connects the church directly with the Cimitero della Certosa city ​​cemetery .

In 1603 the image of the Virgin Mary was crowned by Archbishop Alfonso Paleotti , and in 1857 it received a precious diadem from the hands of Pope Pius IX.

Since 1433 the portrait of Mary has been carried down into the city with great sympathy from the Bolognese. From 1476 the festival was moved from July to a week before the feast of Ascension . The celebrations begin with the “exit” of the painting on the Saturday before the fifth Sunday after Easter . In a procession through the Portico di San Luca, the icon comes into the city and is carried in a long procession through the old town to the cathedral of Bologna . On Wednesday, another procession will take it to the Basilica of San Petronio , on whose forecourt the Bishop of Bologna will give the blessing. On the feast of the Ascension of Christ, the image is brought back to the sanctuary.

There is a museum dedicated to the custom of the portrait of Mary, it is located in the gatehouse of the Porta Saragozza.

Cycling

The steep road that runs parallel to the archway of San Luca is often the scene of various cycling races . In the last few years the Giro dell'Emilia , a one-day race , ended at the Santuario di San Luca , and the route has been driven four times. At the 1956 Giro d'Italia , the individual time trial led from Bologna up to San Luca.

The ascent begins at Arco di Meloncello (55 m) on the outskirts of Bologna, from here to the sanctuary at 289 m it is 2 km with an average gradient of 10.8% and a maximum of 19%. The steepest route is about halfway just after the road crosses the archway. This curve is also known as the Curva delle Orfanelle , "the curve of the orphans".

Cable car

From 1931 to 1976 a cable car led to the summit in front of the sanctuary. The location around the former valley station is still called Funivia , after the Italian word for “cable car”. In 2017, the rebuilding of the cable car was suggested by the mayoral candidate of the local Insieme Bologna group, Manes Bernardini.

gallery

  • Historic photo before 1914, the archway, the sanctuary in the background

  • The historic cable car until 1976

  • The high altar of the church

Web links

Commons : San Luca (Bologna)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Basilica Beata Vergine di S. Luca on gcatholic.org (English, accessed on January 2, 2017).
  2. ^ Attività e proposte - Il Museo della Beata Vergine di San Luca. Centro studi per la cultura popolare, accessed on May 12, 2019 (Italian).
  3. ↑ cf. San Luca Special. IlCiclismo.it (Italian, accessed December 3, 2016).
  4. ^ Vecchia funivia Bologna - San Luca. FuniForum.org, May 5, 2004 (Italian, accessed December 3, 2016).
  5. ↑ Athos Barigazzi: C'era una volta la funivia. Dalcero.com (Italian, accessed October 19, 2017).
  6. ^ Bologna, un progetto per la funivia di San Luca. Il Resto del Carlino , 23 August 2017 (Italian).

Coordinates: 44 ° 28 ′ 46.7 "  N , 11 ° 17 ′ 52.3"  E