Built in the mid-nineteenth century, it stands in a square called the Piazza Santa Maria della Neve and is dedicated to the Madonna of the Snow (in Italian: Madonna della Neve; also, Our Lady of the Snows, Nostra Signora della Neve), the patron saint of Nuoro, whose cult is closely linked to the Santa Maria Maggiorebasilica in Rome.
History
In 1779, with a papal bull called Eam inter Cœteras, Pope Pius VI reconstituted the ancient diocese of Galtellì, which had been abolished by Pope Alexander VI in 1496. However, the former seat of Galtelli was small and was not judged suitable as the home of an episcopal see, and the choice of a new seat fell on Nuoro. This had already for centuries been the seat of the pievania, first at an ancient church of St Aemilian, and later at the church of Santa Maria ad Nives, dating at least from the first half of the sixteenth century. In re-establishing the diocese, Pius VI chose that church as its cathedral.[1]
In 1828, the Bishop of Galtelli-Nuoro, Antonio Maria Casabianca, was put under an interdict, and soon afterwards Giovanni Maria Bua, Archbishop of Oristano, was appointed as apostolic administrator of the diocese.[2]
Buo judged the ancient church to be too small to serve as a permanent cathedral and ordered it to be pulled down, to make way for a new one.[3] He entrusted the work of designing this to a Franciscan, FràAntonio Cano (1779–1840), who had studied architecture in Rome[4] and who had already worked on demolishing and rebuilding churches in Oristano.[5] Cano was a sculptor and a lay friar of the Order of Friars Minor Conventual.[6]
The foundation stone was laid on 12 November 1836, shortly after Charles Albert of Sardinia had declared Nuoro to be a city.[7] The budget for the building work was 34,000 Sardinian Lire, and an English commentator noted that the new church seemed far too large, as Nuoro already had eight other churches.[8]
In 1840, Cano fell from scaffolding at the cathedral[9] and died within hours.[6] By chance, Buo also died in the same year.[3] The building works were held up by these setbacks, and also by a lack of funds,[8] but the building was largely complete by 1853. The new cathedral was consecrated on 3 July 1873 by the bishop of the diocese, Salvatore Angelo Demartis,[10] and by Bishop Francesco Zunnui Casula.[3]
Architecture
The cathedral is in the neoclassical style and overlooks a large square in the historic centre of Nuoro. The West front recalls a classical temple, with four half-columns of granite which have Ioniccapitals and support a triangular tympanum. This is framed by two identical bell towers, with a small dome above each of them.[11] The walls are built of granite and rubble, rendered over with cement.[8]
The nave
The interior has a large barrel-vaulted nave, and all around this is an entablature supported by pilasters which have Corinthian capitals. There are three chapels on each side of the nave, connecting with each other and each having a semicircular apse; the large spaces between them give the effect of side aisles. The chancel is raised a few steps above the nave and was at first enclosed by a marble baluster, which was taken out after the restoration work done between 2000 and 2006. At the east end of the cathedral is a semicircular apse, furnished with wooden choir stalls.[11]
In the first chapel on the right of the nave is the baptismal font and a statue of St John the Baptist, elements re-used from the previous church. In the vaulting of this chapel, traces survive of a fresco made by Antonio Carboni, partly hidden by later plaster dating from the early 20th century. In the last chapel on the left, which is dedicated to the Sacred Heart, is the cabinet of the Eucharist.[12]
Paintings
Inside the chancel is a painting of the fallen Christ being mourned by angels, long attributed to Alessandro Tiarini, but eventually this attribution was rejected, and the work is now reported as by an unknown early nineteenth-century neoclassical painter.[13] The rest of the paintings belong to the Sardinian school of the 19th and 20th centuries.[11]
Festival of the Redeemer
Statue of Christ the Redeemer, Ortobene
The festival of the Redeemer began at Nuoro in 1901, when a bronze statue of Christ the Redeemer was erected on top of Monte Ortobene at the initiative of Pope Leo XIII, who had wished to celebrate the new century with nineteen statues of the Redeemer in nineteen regions. Made on the mainland, the statue arrived by ship in Cagliari on 15 August 1901, in pieces. These arrived in Nuoro on 19 August and on the 29th were transported to the mountain-top by six ox-drawn carts. Re-assembled, the statue was more than four meters high and weighed more than twenty quintals. Bishop Salvatore Demartis organized the inauguration of the statue and invited the whole of Sardinia.[14]
On 29 August of each year since then, the Cathedral's congregation has made a pilgrimage to the statue of the Redeemer on top of Ortobene. A solemn mass is celebrated which concludes the local festival. There is a parade of traditional costumes, with singing and dancing, in which all the villages of Sardinia take part, and this is one of the best chances to see the traditional costumes of the island.[14][15]
↑ Fernand Hayward, Jean Imbert, Sardaigne terre de lumiere (1956), p. 117 (in French): "En 1779, Pie VI érigeait la collégiale de Nuoro en cathédréale et créait ainsi le diocèse de Galtelli-Nuoro."
1 2 3 Ireneo Bellotta, I santi patroni d'Italia (Rome: Newton Compton, 1988), p. 198 (in Italian)
↑ Giuseppe Dessì, Scoperta della Sardegna: antologia di testi di autori italiani e stranieri (Milan: Edizioni Il Polifilo, 1965), p. 320 (in Italian): "Quest'architetto era un monaco francescano per nome frà Antonio Cano, il quale credeva d'aver studiato in Roma l'architettura ... È monsignor Giovanni Maria Bua che fu archivescovo di Oristano dal 1828 al 1840 e amministratore apostolico di Galtellì-Nuoro…"
1 2 Pietro Meloni-Satta, Effemeride Sarda: Col l'aggiunta d'alcuni cenni biografici (1877), p. 170: "Lo scultore Antonio Lo scultore Antonio Cano, frate laico dei Minori Conventuali, cade da un pontaggio della Cattedrale di Nuoro, in costruzione, e dopo alcune ore cessa di vivere."
↑ Franco Fresi, Guida insolita ai misteri, ai segreti, alle leggende e alle curiosità della Sardegna (2015), p. 56Archived 2023-01-06 at the Wayback Machine
1 2 3 J. W. Tyndale, The Island of Sardinia, Including Pictures of the Manners and Customs of the Sardinians, and Notes on the Antiquities and Modern Objects of Interest in the Island (London: Richard Bentley, 1849), pp. 197–198Archived 2023-01-06 at the Wayback Machine
↑ Gianmichele Lisai, Antonio Maccioni, Guida curiosa ai luoghi insoliti della Sardegna (Newton Compton Editori, 14 November 2019), p. 47Archived 2023-01-06 at the Wayback Machine (in Italian): "…Antonio Cano, morto improvvisamente nel 1840 in seguito alla caduta da un'impalcatura nel corso dei lavori della cattedrale di Nuoro."
Nuoro is a city and comune (municipality) in central-eastern Sardinia, Italy, situated on the slopes of Mount Ortobene. It is the capital of the province of Nuoro. With a population of 36,347 (2011), it is the sixth-largest city in Sardinia. Its frazione (borough) of Lollove is one of I Borghi più belli d'Italia.
Posada, also previously known as Feronia or Pausata, is a comune (municipality) in the Province of Nuoro in the Italian region Sardinia. The city sits on the coast of the Tyrrhenian Sea. As of 31 December 2004, it had a population of 2,394 and an area of 33.52 square kilometres (12.94 sq mi).
Sardinia is the second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after Sicily, and one of the twenty regions of Italy. It is located west of the Italian Peninsula, north of Tunisia and 16.45 km south of the French island of Corsica.
The Judicates, in English also referred to as Sardinian Kingdoms, Sardinian Judgedoms or Judicatures, were independent states that took power in Sardinia in the Middle Ages, between the eleventh and fifteenth centuries. They were sovereign states with summa potestas, each with a ruler called judge, with the powers of a king.
Sardinia is probably the most culturally distinct of all the regions in Italy and, musically, is best known for the tenore polyphonic singing, sacred chants called gosos, the launeddas, an ancient instrument that consists of a set of three single-reed pipes, all three mouth-blown simultaneously using circular breathing, with two chanters and one drone and the cantu a chiterra, a monodic song that is accompanied by guitar, widespread mainly in the center and north of the island.
Galtellì is a comune (municipality) in the Province of Nuoro in the Italian region Sardinia, located about 140 kilometres (87 mi) northeast of Cagliari and about 25 kilometres (16 mi) northeast of Nuoro.
The Diocese of Nuoro is a Latin Church diocese of the Catholic Church in Sardinia. It is a suffragan of the archdiocese of Cagliari. Historically it was the diocese of Galtellì until 1779, and then the diocese of Galtellì-Nuoro until 1928.
The Diocese of Tempio-Ampurias is a Latin Church diocese of the Catholic Church in Sardinia, Italy. Until 1986 it was known as Diocese of Ampurias e Tempio. It is a suffragan of the Archdiocese of Sassari
The Diocese of Alghero-Bosa is a Latin Church diocese of the Catholic Church. It is a suffragan of the Metropolitan Archdiocese of Sassari, on Sardinia, insular Italy.
Santa Giusta Cathedral, now a minor basilica is the former cathedral of the abolished Diocese of Santa Giusta, in Santa Giusta, province of Oristano, Sardinia, Italy. The dedication is to Saint Justa of Cagliari who, according to the tradition, was martyred here at the time of the Roman emperor Diocletian, with her companions Saints Justina and Aenidina. Almost entirely built in sandstone, it is considered one of the most important examples of Sardinian Romanesque architecture.
The Nuragic civilization, also known as the Nuragic culture, formed in the Mediterranean island of Sardinia, Italy in the Bronze Age. According to the traditional theory put forward by Giovanni Lilliu in 1966, it developed after multiple migrations from the West of people related to the Beaker culture who conquered and disrupted the local Copper Age cultures; other scholars instead hypothesize an autochthonous origin. It lasted from the 18th century BC, or from the 23rd century BC, up to the Roman colonization in 238 BC. Others date the culture as lasting at least until the 2nd century AD, and in some areas, namely the Barbagia, to the 6th century AD, or possibly even to the 11th century AD. Although it must be remarked that the construction of new nuraghi had already stopped by the 12th-11th century BC, during the Final Bronze Age.
Antonio Pigliaru was a Sardinian jurist and philosopher. He was the most important Sardinian intellectual of the second half of the twentieth century, and one of the most vivid contemporary Italian thinkers. He engaged with manifold themes, but he devoted special attention to the interpretation of the socio-economic problems of interior areas of Sardinia, which he discussed according to his own ethical and political views.
Sardinian nationalism or also Sardism is a social, cultural and political movement in Sardinia calling for the self-determination of the Sardinian people in a context of national devolution, further autonomy in Italy, or even outright independence from the latter. It also promotes the protection of the island's environment and the preservation of its cultural heritage.
Giulio Angioni was an Italian writer and anthropologist.
Giovanni Lilliu, was a renowned archeologist, academician, publicist and politician and public figure and an expert of the Nuragic civilization. Largely due to his scientific and archeologic work in the Su Nuraxi di Barumini in Sardinia, Italy, the site was inscribed on the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites in 1997.
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Civita(-Tempio) was a Latin Catholic bishopric in the Gallura region of northern Sardinia.
The Sardinian Romanesque is the Romanesque architectural style that developed in Sardinia. The Romanesque architecture in Sardinia has had a remarkable development since the early origins, during the Giudicati era, and for a long period. His expressions, although autonomous, are not classifiable in a recognizable image, since in the island the Romanesque manifested itself with unusual results but in numerous forms; this is due to the establishment in Sardinia of several religious orders, coming from various Italian regions and from France. Consequently, in the architectures of that era Pisan, Lombard and Provençal influences are recognizable as well as traces of the passage of workers, coming from the Iberian Peninsula, of Islamic culture. In total there are over 150 Romanesque monuments in Sardinia.
Architecture of Sardinia has developed since 4000 B.C., presenting characteristic aspects in certain historical periods, especially in the Nuragic age.
Frà Antonio Cano (1779–1840) was a sculptor, architect, and lay friar of the Kingdom of Sardinia.
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