Certosa di Bologna

Last updated

Certosa of Bologna
Sala del colombario (certosa di bologna).JPG
Colombario's Hall at La Certosa of Bologni.
Certosa di Bologna
Details
Established1334
Location
Country Italy
TypePublic
Owned byBologna
Website Official website
Find a Grave Certosa of Bologna

The Certosa di Bologna is a former Carthusian monastery (or charterhouse) in Bologna, northern Italy, which was founded in 1334 and suppressed in 1797. In 1801 it became the city's Monumental Cemetery which would be much praised by Byron and others. In 1869 an Etruscan necropolis, which had been in use from the sixth to the third centuries BC, was discovered here.

Contents

The Certosa is located just outside the walls of the city, near the Stadio Renato Dall'Ara, at the foot of the Monte della Guardia and the Sanctuary of the Madonna di San Luca.

The church

The church is dedicated to Saint Jerome (San Girolamo). The painting over the high altar is The Crucifixion by Bartolomeo Cesi; to the left is a Prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane and to the right a Deposition, also by Cesi. The wooden inlaid choir stalls were restored by Biagio De' Marchi in 1538 after a fire started by the Landsknechts of Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor. There is a series of large (450 x 350 cm) paintings of episodes from the life of Christ which were commissioned to Giovanni Andrea Sirani (Christ in the House of Simon, 1652), Elisabetta Sirani (The Baptism of Christ, 1658), Francesco Gessi (The Miraculous Draught of Fishes and The Expulsion from the Temple, 1645), Giovanni Maria Galli da Bibiena (The Ascension, 1651), Lorenzo Pasinelli (Entry into Jerusalem, 1657), Domenico Maria Canuti, and the Neapolitan Nunzio Rossi (Adoration of the Shepherds). There are paintings of several Carthusian martyrs including the Englishmen Blessed William Exmew, Blessed Thomas Johnson, Blessed Richard Bere, and Blessed Thomas Green.

Other works by Antonio and Bartolomeo Vivarini, Ludovico and Agostino Carracci, in addition to Guercino, were taken to Paris by Napoleon, and when returned to Bologna were deposited in the Pinacoteca Nazionale.

The cemetery

The public cemetery was established in 1801 using the pre-existing structure of the Certosa di San Girolamo di Casara, founded in the middle of the 14th century that was closed by Napoleon in 1797. The passion of the local nobility and aristocracy for monumental family tombs transformed the Certosa in an "open-air museum," a stage of the Italian grand tour: it was visited by Byron, Dickens, Theodor Mommsen, and Stendhal. In particular the third cloister (or that of the chapel) is noteworthy: a tour of neoclassicism-inspired structures with symbology from the Age of Enlightenment. Some tombs are painted in tempera, others are made of stucco and scagliola.

An aspect that distinguishes the Certosa of Bologna from other monumental cemeteries of Europe is derived from the complex articulation of its use of space. To the original convent nucleus were added lodges, rooms, and porticos that recreate glimpses of a setting that recalls the city of the "living". Even the porticoed eastern entrance of the cemetery, which is linked to the one that leads to the Sanctuary of San Luca with only a small break, creates continuity between necropolis and city.

The discoveries from an Etruscan necropolis during archeological excavations organized by the engineer Antonio Zannoni, in order to extend the cemetery at the end of the 19th century, are now in the Civic Archeological Museum of Bologna.

Tombs

Among those buried in the Certosa are the following:

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Villanovan culture</span> Iron age culture in Italy

The Villanovan culture, regarded as the earliest phase of the Etruscan civilization, was the earliest Iron Age culture of Italy. It directly followed the Bronze Age Proto-Villanovan culture which branched off from the Urnfield culture of Central Europe. The name derives from the locality of Villanova, a fraction of the municipality of Castenaso in the Metropolitan City of Bologna where, between 1853 and 1855, Giovanni Gozzadini found the remains of a necropolis, bringing to light 193 tombs, of which there were 179 cremations and 14 inhumations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bolognese School</span> Art movement in early-modern Italy

The Bolognese School of painting, also known as the School of Bologna, flourished between the 16th and 17th centuries in Bologna, which rivalled Florence and Rome as the center of painting in Italy. Its most important representatives include the Carracci family, including Ludovico Carracci and his two cousins, the brothers Agostino and Annibale Carracci. Later, it included other Baroque painters: Domenichino and Lanfranco, active mostly in Rome, eventually Guercino and Guido Reni, and Accademia degli Incamminati in Bologna, which was run by Lodovico Carracci. Certain artistic conventions, which over time became traditionalist, had been developed in Rome during the first decades of the 16th century. As time passed, some artists sought new approaches to their work that no longer reflected only the Roman manner. The Carracci studio sought innovation or invention, seeking new ways to break away from traditional modes of painting while continuing to look for inspiration from their literary contemporaries; the studio formulated a style that was distinguished from the recognized manners of art in their time. This style was seen as both systematic and imitative, borrowing particular motifs from the past Roman schools of art and innovating a modernistic approach.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Elisabetta Sirani</span> Italian artist (1638–1665)

Elisabetta Sirani was an Italian Baroque painter and printmaker who died in unexplained circumstances at the age of 27. She was one of the first women artists in early modern Bologna, who established an academy for other women artists.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Certosa di Pavia</span> Monastery and complex in Lombardy, Italy

The Certosa di Pavia is a monastery and complex in Lombardy, Northern Italy, situated near a small town of the same name in the Province of Pavia, 8 km (5.0 mi) north of Pavia. Built in 1396–1495, it was once located on the border of a large hunting park belonging to the Visconti family of Milan, of which today only scattered parts remain. It is one of the largest monasteries in Italy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">San Domenico, Bologna</span> Major church in Bologna, Italy

The Basilica of San Domenico is one of the major churches in Bologna, Italy. The remains of Saint Dominic, founder of the Order of Preachers (Dominicans), are buried inside the exquisite shrine Arca di San Domenico, made by Nicola Pisano and his workshop, Arnolfo di Cambio and with later additions by Niccolò dell'Arca and the young Michelangelo.

Certosa is an Italian word meaning Carthusian monastery, or charterhouse. It may refer to:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bartolomeo Cesi</span> Italian painter

Bartolomeo Cesi was an Italian painter and draftsman of the Bolognese School. He made easel paintings as well as frescoes. He is known mainly for his religious paintings but he also painted portraits and mythological scenes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lucio Massari</span> Italian painter (1569–1633)

Lucio Massari was an Italian painter of the School of Bologna. He can be described as painting during both Mannerist and early-Baroque periods.

Giovanni Girolamo Bonesi (1653–1725) was an Italian painter of the Baroque period.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pietro Fancelli</span> Italian painter

Pietro Fancelli was an Italian painter and set-designer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">San Procolo, Bologna</span>

San Procolo is an early Gothic-style, Roman Catholic church and former monastery-hospital located on Via Massimo D'Azeglio #52 in central Bologna, region of Emilia Romagna, Italy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Filippo Pedrini</span> Italian painter

Filippo Pedrini was an Italian painter.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Domenico Pedrini</span> Italian painter (1728–1800)

Domenico Pedrini was an Italian painter. Fiercely provincial in his geographic activity, Pedrini's works were mainly completed in and around Bologna, and yet his atavistic style strayed far afield into Bologna's strong Baroque ancestry.

Bartolomeo Valiani was an Italian painter.

San Giuseppe Sposo is a medieval Roman Catholic church and convent, now respectively parish church and museum, near Porta Saragozza in Bologna, Italy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Matteo Borboni</span> Italian painter

Matteo Borboni or Borbone was an Italian painter, known for fresco depiction of quadratura during the Baroque period, active mainly in his native Bologna.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Giuseppe Guizzardi</span> Italian painter (1779–1861)

Giuseppe Guizzardi was an Italian painter during the Neoclassical period.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ferrara Charterhouse</span> Former monastery in Ferrara, Italy

Ferrara Charterhouse, of which the present Church of San Cristoforo alla Certosa was previously the monastic church, is a former charterhouse or Carthusian monastery built in Renaissance style, located on Piazza Borso 50 in Ferrara, Region of Emilia-Romagna, Italy. The monastery was suppressed in the time of Napoleon, but the church was reconsecrated in 1813 and remains in use. The site also accommodates a large municipal cemetery, which was established in 1813.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Certosa di Pontignano</span>

The Certosa di Pontignano, also known as the Certosa di San Pietro, is a Carthusian monastery and church in the neighborhood of Pontignano, within the town limits of Castelnuovo Berardenga, a few kilometers north of the city of Siena, in the region of Tuscany, Italy. The monastic complex, after the expulsion of the monks in 1810, passed through various hands, until it was acquired in 1959 by the University of Siena, and used for academic meetings, conventions, and also hotel and restaurant for events such as weddings and celebrations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aldo Oviglio</span> Italian politician (1873–1942)

Aldo Oviglio was an Italian lawyer and politician, who served as the first minister of justice in the Mussolini government between October 1922 and January 1925.

References

  1. Fabbro, Federica (2012). "Tomba Oviglio" [Oviglio Tomb]. Storia e Memoria di Bologna (in Italian). Retrieved 9 January 2024.
  2. Conti, Fulvio (2014). "Oviglio, Aldo". Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani (in Italian). Vol. 80.

44°29′47″N11°18′34″E / 44.49639°N 11.30944°E / 44.49639; 11.30944