Ferrara Charterhouse (Italian : Certosa di Ferrara), 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.
In 1452, the Duke Borso d'Este sponsored the construction of a charterhouse (Italian : certosa) in Ferrara. As was the usual Carthusian practice, it was built outside the existing city walls, but ten years later new walls, the Addizione Erculea, brought it back within the city.
The present church, dedicated to Saint Christopher (San Cristoforo), was built in 1498, next to the original monastic church. The layout is that of a Latin cross with six lateral chapels. The project is attributed to Biagio Rossetti. The west front, which remains incomplete, was decorated in 1769 with a marble portal to the design of Gaetano Barbieri sculpted by Pietro Puttini, with angels by Francesco Zoppi. [1] The side altars were decorated by Nicolò Roselli, and contained an altarpiece (1570) by Bastianino.
In the late 1700s, after the Napoleonic suppression, the monastery and church were closed and became the property of the city. The church was reconsecrated in 1813. [2] The adjacent grounds, like those of Bologna Charterhouse, were converted for use as a municipal public cemetery (Cimitero Cittadino) by the architect Ferdinando Canonici, at which point the older church and part of the cloister were demolished. The grounds also contain a Jewish cemetery and a memorial statue to Leopoldo Cicognara by Antonio Canova. [3]
Aerial bombing in 1944, during the Second World War, damaged the apse, choir, bell tower and south side of the church. The restorations were still incomplete, when the 2012 earthquake further damaged the foundations, limiting its use. [4]
The Napoleonic suppression of the monastery led to the dispersal of the works of movable art in the church and monastery. An inventory in 1770 lists the following:
The twelve chapels had canvases depicting the Passion of Christ by Roselli. The altar on the right of the crossing had a canvas with The Last Judgement with Sibyls by Sebastiano Filippi. This side of the crossing also had a St Jerome, copy of a work by Agostino Caracci for the Certosa of Bologna, copied by Francesco Naselli; a Blessed Niccolo Albergati, by an unknown Carthusian monk painter; and a St Bruno at Prayer in Squillace met by Roger I of Sicily by Ippolito Scarsellino. In the arches of the main chapel were two canvases depicting Carthusian Beati Stefano Macconi and Pietro Petroni (Blessed Monks) by Bononi. [5]
The main altar tabernacle had paintings by Agostino Caracci. On the Baldacchino was a canvas by Francesco Ferrari. To the statuary of the main altar were works contributed by Pierro Turchi. The lateral canvases depicted the Virgin pleads with San Bruno and colleagues to return to the Hermitage and San Bruno before Roger I of Sicily by Giuseppe Avanzi. In the center, in the facade of the partition that separates the monk's choir, was a depiction of St Christopher by Sebastiano Filippi. Fillipi also painted a canvas next to the presbytery, depicting the Ascension of Christ. In the counter-facade were two holy bishops by Maurelio Scanavini. [6]
The oratory next to the Presbytery had a St Bruno and fellow monks at Prayer and the Refectory had a Marriage at Cana (1622) by Bononi. The Prior's chapel had a Madonna and Child and St Bruno by the school of Guercino.
Other works in the monastery included paintings by the following:
The Carthusians, also known as the Order of Carthusians, are a Latin enclosed religious order of the Catholic Church. The order was founded by Bruno of Cologne in 1084 and includes both monks and nuns. The order has its own rule, called the Statutes, and their life combines both eremitical and cenobitic monasticism. The motto of the Carthusians is Stat crux dum volvitur orbis, Latin for 'The Cross is steady while the world turns'. The Carthusians retain a unique form of liturgy known as the Carthusian Rite.
Carlo Bononi was an Italian painter. An 1876 book lists him among "the last artists of any eminence in Ferrara".
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Sebastiano Filippi was an Italian late Renaissance – Mannerist painter of the School of Ferrara.
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Farneta Charterhouse, in Italian Certosa di Farneta is a Carthusian monastery (charterhouse) just north of Lucca, region of Tuscany, Italy.
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A charterhouse is a monastery of Carthusian monks. The English word is derived by phono-semantic matching from the French word chartreuse and it is therefore sometimes misunderstood to indicate that the houses were created by charter, a grant of legal rights by a high authority.
The Pinacotecta Nazionale is an art gallery in Ferrara, Emilia-Romagna, Italy. It is located on the piano nobile of the Palazzo dei Diamanti, a work of Renaissance architecture by Biagio Rossetti, commissioned by Leonello d’Este in 1447. Not to be confused with the Civic Museum on the lower floor, which has hosted temporary exhibitions of contemporary art since 1992, the Pinacoteca houses a collection of paintings by the Ferrarese School dating from the thirteenth to the eighteenth centuries. It was founded in 1836 by the Municipality of Ferrara after Napoleon's widespread dissolution of churches threatened the protection of important public artworks. The gallery is formed as much around notable northern Italian painters as it is around the exquisite interior decoration of the palace itself, together with remnants of frescoes from local churches and later acquisitions from the Sacrati Strozzi collection.
