Basilica di San Fedele (Como)

Last updated March 13, 2019

The Basilica of San Fedele in Como is located in the city center^[1] and is dedicated to Saint Fidelis martyr. It derives from an earlier Christian church, dating from the seventh century, dedicated to Euphemia.

Como is a city and comune in Lombardy, Italy. It is the administrative capital of the Province of Como.

Saint Fidelis of Como was an Italian soldier-saint, according to Christian tradition.

Christianity is a religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth, as described in the New Testament. Its adherents, known as Christians, believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and savior of all people, whose coming as the Messiah was prophesied in the Old Testament. Depending on the specific denomination of Christianity, practices may include baptism, Eucharist, prayer, confession, confirmation, burial rites, marriage rites and the religious education of children. Most denominations have ordained clergy and hold regular group worship services.

Architecture

The present church dates from 1120, the building is Romanesque and not just the original three naves irregular grafted onto a central plant, also irregular due to the smaller size compared to the two main apse of the transept. In the back there is a barrel vault in the nave with bone-arched pediment. The restoration of Antonio Giussani altered the facade (1914) and bell tower (1905). Farm use of Roman pieces are carved above the door back in Romanesque capitals and adapted to ambulatory font north of lion terrier.^[2]

Romanesque architecture is an architectural style of medieval Europe characterized by semi-circular arches. There is no consensus for the beginning date of the Romanesque style, with proposals ranging from the 6th to the 11th century, this later date being the most commonly held. In the 12th century it developed into the Gothic style, marked by pointed arches. Examples of Romanesque architecture can be found across the continent, making it the first pan-European architectural style since Imperial Roman architecture. The Romanesque style in England is traditionally referred to as Norman architecture.

Apse Semicircular recess covered with a hemispherical vault or semi-dome

In architecture, an apse is a semicircular recess covered with a hemispherical vault or semi-dome, also known as an exedra. In Byzantine, Romanesque, and Gothic Christian church architecture, the term is applied to a semi-circular or polygonal termination of the main building at the liturgical east end, regardless of the shape of the roof, which may be flat, sloping, domed, or hemispherical. Smaller apses may also be in other locations, especially shrines.

A transept is a transverse part of any building, which lies across the main body of the edifice. In churches, a transept is an area set crosswise to the nave in a cruciform ("cross-shaped") building within the Romanesque and Gothic Christian church architectural traditions. Each half of a transept is known as a semitransept.

External

Facade

The neo-Romanesque facade of San Fedele, rebuilt from scratch in 1914, has a central Rose window.^[3]

A rose window or Catherine window is often used as a generic term applied to a circular window, but is especially used for those found in churches of the Gothic architectural style and being divided into segments by stone mullions and tracery. The name "rose window" was not used before the 17th century and according to the Oxford English Dictionary, among other authorities, comes from the English flower name rose.

Bell tower

Probably built at the same time that the basilica, had collapsed in the earthquake of 3 January 1117. It was rebuilt in 1271. It tilted over the years, so it was demolished in 1905 to a height of m. 11.90 and then rebuilt.^[4]

An earthquake, rated at VII on the Mercalli intensity scale, struck northern Italy and Germany on 3 January 1117. The epicentre of the first shock was near Verona, the city which suffered the most damage. The outer wall of the amphitheatre was partially felled, and the standing portion was damaged in a later earthquake of 1183. Many other churches, monasteries, and ancient monuments were destroyed or seriously damaged, eliminating much of Verona's early medieval architecture and providing space for a massive Romanesque rebuilding. After the first shock of 3 January, seismic activity persisted for months, striking on 12 January, 4 June, 1 July, 1 October, and 30 December.

Portal

At the outside there are interesting details like the central apse polygonal three-story crowned by loggia from the thirteenth century. and flanked by the ancient pointed portal dating from the eleventh and twelfth centuries, also called portal of the dragon with medieval bas-relief.. According to the most common hypothesis is represented prophet Habakkuk with baskets of food he brought for St. Daniel, and below it is a carved relief of Romanesque depicting "Daniel on the throne in the lions' den."^[5]

Habakkuk, who was active around 612 BC, was a prophet whose oracles and prayer are recorded in the Book of Habakkuk, the eighth of the collected twelve minor prophets in the Hebrew Bible. He is revered by Jews, Christians, and Muslims.

Daniel (biblical figure) protagonist in the Book of Daniel of the Hebrew Bible

Daniel is the hero of the biblical Book of Daniel. A noble Jewish youth of Jerusalem, he is taken into captivity by Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon and serves the king and his successors with loyalty and ability until the time of the Persian conqueror Cyrus, all the while remaining true to the God of Israel. The consensus of modern scholars is that Daniel never existed, and the book is a cryptic allusion to the reign of the 2nd century BCE Greek king Antiochus IV Epiphanes.

Relief is a sculptural technique where the sculpted elements remain attached to a solid background of the same material. The term relief is from the Latin verb relevo, to raise. To create a sculpture in relief is to give the impression that the sculpted material has been raised above the background plane. What is actually performed when a relief is cut in from a flat surface of stone or wood is a lowering of the field, leaving the unsculpted parts seemingly raised. The technique involves considerable chiselling away of the background, which is a time-consuming exercise. On the other hand, a relief saves forming the rear of a subject, and is less fragile and more securely fixed than a sculpture in the round, especially one of a standing figure where the ankles are a potential weak point, especially in stone. In other materials such as metal, clay, plaster stucco, ceramics or papier-mâché the form can be just added to or raised up from the background, and monumental bronze reliefs are made by casting.

Plan of the basilica

 1. Ark Gothic Saint Fidelis of 1365;  2. Votive frescoes (thirteenth-fourteenth centuries);  3. Chapel of the Crucifix;  4. Chapel of Mary;  5. Altar of suffrage;  6. Chapel of Innocent XI;  7. Chapel of Mary of the Snow;  8. Paintings and sculptures of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

The interior has three naves and three apses presbytery, covered by a dome and surrounded by an ambulatory.^[6]

Along the ambulatory, there are medieval votive frescoes.^[7]

In the chapel of the Crucifix, there is an impressive marble altar contains the crucifix in papier-mâché painted on the apse by Isidoro Bianchi in 1623. God the Father and the risen Christ dominate the center of three circles. In the first circle appear some holy (Orsola, Marta, Apollonia, Catherine, Agatha, Cecilia) accompanied by S. Peter Martyr, and other saints. In the second are grouped saints, bishops and popes (Vincenzo, Lorenzo, Sebastian, Carlo Borromeo, Bernard, and others). In the third we find a host of angels and archangels. Four paintings with scenes of the Passion painted by Carlo Innocenzo Carloni of Scaria complete the decoration of the chapel located at the end of the south aisle.^[8]

At the end of the north aisle, there is the chapel of the Blessed Virgin Purified represented by a seventeenth-century statue in gilded wood. The bowl is painted with frescoes of the Assumption of the Virgin attributed to the painter Domenico Caresana and Francesco Carpano. At the sides of the altarpiece there are four seventeenth-century frescoes of the Marriage of the Virgin, the Nativity, the Annunciation to the Shepherds and the Adoration of the Magi.^[9]

The first chapel on the right has different characteristics from the others. The ceiling is lined with baroque stucco, and on the wall there is a triptych painted in 1504 by Giovanni Andrea De Magistris representing Mary with Child between Saints Sebastian and Rocco; below there is an urn which contained the remains (now venerated in the Church of "Jesus") of sant'Amanzio bishop of Como.^[10]

Images

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References

External links

official site

Coordinates: 45°48′35.12″N9°5′4.66″E / 45.8097556°N 9.0846278°E / 45.8097556; 9.0846278

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[1] ttp://www.diocesidicomo.it/como/s2magazine/index1.jsp?idPagina=22879

[2] t:Basilica di San Fedele (Como)

[3] t:Basilica di San Fedele (Como)

[4] t:Basilica di San Fedele (Como)

[5] t:Basilica di San Fedele (Como)

[6] t:Basilica di San Fedele (Como)

[7] t:Basilica di San Fedele (Como)

[8] t:Basilica di San Fedele (Como)

[9] ttp://www.parrocchiasanfedelecomo.it

[10] t:Basilica di San Fedele (Como)