Via dei Crociferi (Catania)

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The churches of San Francesco Borgia and San Benedetto (back).

The Via dei Crociferi ( road of the Cross Bearers ) is a baroque Boulevard in Catania . The monasteries and churches on the central part of the street are part of the Unesco World Heritage Site of the Late Baroque Cities of Val di Noto .

Southern part

The starting point in the south is the Piazza San Francesco d'Assisi with the double-towered church of San Francesco d'Assisi all'Immacolata (19th century) and the monument to Cardinal Giuseppe Benedetto Dusmet (1935). The piazza can be reached from the Cathedral Square via Via Vittorio Emanuele II.

This is followed by a steep climb to Via Teatro Greco, which leads west to the rear of the Roman theater . In ancient times, this was connected to the amphitheater (Piazza Stesicoro) by a road . The Christian places of worship, which emerged over ancient buildings over the centuries , were rebuilt after the severe earthquake of 1693.

San Benedetto

Arch of San Benedetto: Procession on the feast of St. Agata .

From the junction with Via Teatro Greco, Via dei Crociferi is car-free. It is spanned at this point by the arch of the Benedictine monastery built in 1704 . It connects the Small Abbey (before 1693 Santa Maddalena Monastery, today Museo di Arte Contemporanea Sicilia) in the east with the Great Abbey and the monastery church on the other side of the street. Note the omnipresent window bars ( Gelosie ) behind which the nobility had their daughters raised to wives or kept away from the opposite sex for life to prevent inheritance .

The newly founded Kingdom of Italy abolished all religious orders and religious corporations in 1866 . Today the convent buildings house a girls' school run by Benedictine nuns of the Holy Sacrament . As part of guided tours, the parlatorium is shown, where the nuns talk to their relatives on visiting days but could not see them.

The Church of San Benedetto was built between 1704 and 1713 and restored after being damaged in the Second World War . The single-nave interior is accessed via the famous Scalinata dell'Angelo, a monumental staircase adorned with eight statues of angels . The important frescoes were created by Giovanni Tuccari in 1726–1720 . In 1993, parts of the film drama Storia di una capinera ( Story of a Blackcap ) by Franco Zeffirelli based on the eponymous novella by Giovanni Verga were filmed in the church and monastery .

San Francesco Borgia

Now you cross the Via San Benedetto leading to Piazza Asmundo with the baroque Palazzo Asmundo Francica-Nava and reach the Jesuit branch , which was rebuilt from 1698 according to plans by Angelo Italia . Your three-aisled church of San Francesco Borgia is preceded by a flight of stairs with ramps on both sides. The adjoining former Jesuit college (until 2009 Istituto Statale d'Arte) has a beautiful two-storey cloister in addition to the imposing facade .

Behind the college, in the west, the long, narrow Via dei Gesuiti leads to the exedo-shaped Piazza Dante and the largest baroque building complex in Catania, the Benedictine monastery of San Nicolò l'Arena , which is also a UNESCO World Heritage Site (today the seat of the Department of Humanistic Sciences at the Università degli Studi ). Halfway along Via dei Gesuiti are the Roman Terme della Rotonda with a dome room that was converted into a church under Byzantine rule .

San Giuliano

From the opposite eastern side of Via dei Cruciferi to Via Sangiuliano and Via Manzoni , the area of ​​the Benedictine Abbey of San Giuliano , which was considered the most prestigious of the city's five women's convents until secularization, extends . The Chiesa di San Giuliano from 1741–1751  - one of the most beautiful examples of the Catanesian late baroque - is the work of Giuseppe Palazzotto (1702–1764). The central building , which is elongated in an east-west direction, has apses facing all four directions , with the outside of the western apse forming the convex facade of the building.

The two-storey nuns choir located above the vestibule can be viewed by taking part in a guided tour . You can also climb the prismatic Tiburio with a gallery that surrounds the cloister vault of the large dome. From here there is a beautiful view of the city, the sea and Mount Etna . The convent building with the two-story cloister is now the local headquarters of the CGIL union .

Northern part

After the monastery of San Giuliano, Via dei Crociferi is crossed by the ascending, heavily trafficked Via Sangiuliano. After 1693, it and today's main shopping street Via Etnea were the axes of the newly built city. In the remainder of Via dei Crociferi there is still the church of San Camillo ai Crociferi, designed by Francesco Battaglia in 1735, with an oval floor plan and concave facade. It belongs to the former monastery of the Chierici regolari ministri degli infermi (Camilliani or Crociferi) and is located on the western side of the street that gave it its name.

Via dei Crociferi ends at Villa Cerami, surrounded by palm trees (seat of the University's legal department). A staircase leads from there down Via Penninello to Via Etnea.

gallery

literature

Web links

Commons : Via dei Crociferi  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Videos

  • Ciuridda: Catania Via Crociferi walking tour 4k (silent). 8 min ( video on YouTube ).
  • Vacanze Siciliane.net: Sito Storico Monastero San Benedetto Via Crociferi Catania - Scalinata degli Angeli Guida (Italian). 17 min ( video on YouTube ).
  • La Sicilia: Catania, con "Le Vie dei Tesori" alla scoperta della Chiesa di San Giuliano (Italian). 3 min ( video on YouTube ).
  • Franco Zeffirelli : Storia di una capinera (Italian). 1993. 2 h 30 min ( video on YouTube ).

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ preface by Adolfo Longhitano to Salvatore Maria Calogero: La Badia di San Giuliano in Via Crociferi as Monastero di Clausura a Camera del Lavoro. Agorà, Catania 2010, ISBN 978-88-8993-008-3 , p. 8.