Free guided tour of three churches in the historic center of Bologna that are normally not open to visitors.
Meeting on Saturday 20 October at 9:30 am on the ground floor of the Lercaro Foundation in via Riva Reno, 55.
Introduced by Paola Foschi.
What are the churches:
– Sanctuary of Santa Maria della Visitazione – via Lame, 50
The original church was built in the first half of the sixteenth century on a bridge that at the time overlooked the Reno canal.
Important interventions took place during the eighteenth century (1763-1764), designed by the architect Marcantonio Bianchini and during the twentieth century (1930-1931), designed by the architect Giuseppe Rivani.
The decorative apparatus is the work of several eighteenth-century painters and sculptors.
– Church of San Giuseppe del Borgo di Galliera – via san Giuseppe (corner via Galliera)
The testimonies affirm that the church was born as a small oratory in 1129 just after the circle of Torresotti, later expanded to become at the beginning of 1300 the monastic complex of the Servite Fathers.
In 1566 it will pass to the Order of Women of the Sisters of Santa Maria Maddalena up to the Napoleonic suppressions of the late eighteenth century.
The church will be deconsecrated and the convent complex will be put up for sale and will be sold as proof of where the Arena del Sole theater will be located.
– Church of Saints Cosmas and Damian – via Begatto, 12
The small church was built in 1641-44 as a place of worship for a company of fifteen Secular Priests, called the Congregation of Sacred Suffrage.
“Picciola, but gallant church”, as the Malvasia defined it, has a simple façade, with a tympanum and a half-circle window.
The interior, elegant and harmonious, is painted architectures by Flaminio Minozzi and Filippo Pedrini. The presbytery canvas is the work of Domenico Pedrini.
The three churches are described in the book “The hidden treasures of Christian Bologna” by Paola Foschi, Bologna 2017, published by Bononia University Press and published in the Dies Domini series – Study Center for Sacred Architecture and the City.
ABOUT
Cardinal Giacomo Lercaro Foundation
Lercaro collection
Via Riva di Reno, 57 – Bologna
