Photograph: Mario Berardi,  © Diocesi di Bologna


Name of Monument:

Cattedrale di San Pietro

Location:

Bologna, Emilia-Romagna, Italy

Contact DetailsCattedrale di San Pietro
Via dell'Indipendenza,
Bologna
T : +39 051 222112
Arcidiocesi di Bologna (Responsible Institution)

Date:

16th-18th century

Artists:

Domenico Tibaldi; Pietro Fiorini; Floriano Ambrosini; Giovanni Ambrogio Magenta; Alfonso Torreggiani; Francesco Tadolini

Denomination / Type of monument:

Religious architecture

Patron(s):

Archbishop Gabriele Paleotti; Archbishop Alfonso Paleotti; Cardinal Prospero Lambertini later Pope Benedict XIV

History:

The original Romanesque cathedral was most likely dated from the beginning of the eleventh century. It was destroyed by a fire in 1014 and rebuilt in the second half of the twelveth century. Work continued until the fifteenth century. In the second half of the sixteenth century the Archbishop Gabriele Paleotti began a new ambitious program of works beginning with the apse. In 1575, the architect Domenico Tibaldi built a new presbiterium. This was decorated a few years later by several painters: Cesare Aretusi, Giovan Battista Fiorini, Bartolomeo Cesi, Camillo Procaccini and Prospero Fontana.
Later, Archbishop Alfonso Paleotti commissioned architect Pietro Fiorini to create a simplification of the original plan by Tibaldi by eliminating the number of columns and pilasters in the naves. Unfortunately, the structuring may have been faulty as the vaults of the church collapsed in 1599. In 1605, work started again following the plan of Giovanni Ambrogio Magenta, under the supervision of Floriano Ambrosini. In 1612, the work continued by master builder Nicolò Donati, who partly modified Magenta's ideas.
Work stopped for ten years, from 1613 until 1731. In 1734, Cardinal Prospero Lambertini, later Pope Benedict XIV, asked the architect Alfonso Torreggiani to complete the church and to build its façade: the façade was finally finished in 1776 by the architect Francesco Tadolini.

Description:

The façade has red bricks which emphasize the decorations in white Istrian stone. It is divided into two levels employing two gigantic Corinthian columns. The front of the building is crowned by a triangular pediment with three entrances. There is a large central window, flanked by the statues of Saints Peter and Paul on both sides.
The bell tower, positioned on the southern side, was completed in the fifteenth century and incorporates the cylindrical tower of a former basilica, dating back to the end of the tenth century.
The plan for the church follows the Jesuit outline: a hallway lined with chapels that open out onto the nave. Also lining the nave is a series of arches that alternate with wide pillars culminating in an eighteenth century choir in the middle. A barrel vault, flanked by buttresses, is supported by a rich entablature. The wide upper windows create a luminous atmosphere within the church.
The richly decorated 16th century presbiterium is constructed on a Greek cross plan with three apses and a rectangular space proceeds the choir. It is covered by a groin vault supported by four large Corinthian columns. On the ceiling of the groin vault, above the main altar, is a fresco depicting La Dimora Celeste (“Paradise”) painted by Prospero Fontana in 1579. In the lunette above the altar is the Annunciation (1618) by Ludovico Carracci. The semi-dome above the apse has a painting of Christ Handing the keys to Peter by Cesare Aretusi and Giovanni Battista Fiorini (1579). The Bolognese artists Donato Creti, Marcantonio Franceschini, Vittorio Bigari, Antonio Rossi, Giuseppe Marchesi known as Sansone and Ercole Graziani painted the eighteenth century altarpieces.

View Short Description

St. Peter's cathedral, whose original nucleus dates back to the 11th century, was remodeled and rebuilt between the second half of the 16th century and the 18th century. The imposing interior, nearly as high as that of St. Peter's in Rome is richly decorated with stuccoes, marbles, gold, frescoes and other works of art. The church holds pictures by Prospero Fontana, Ludovico Carracci, Marcantonio Franceschini and Donato Creti, and a terracotta group of depicting the Mourning over the dead Christ by Alfonso Lombardi.

How Monument was dated:

Historical documents.

Special features

View of the church from the counter façade

Cattedrale di San Pietro, interior

Sixteenth – eighteenth century

Domenico Tibaldi; Pietro Fiorini; Floriano Ambrosini; Giovanni Ambrogio Magenta; Alfonso Torreggiani

The presbiterium (sixteenth century) is connected to the nave (seventeenth – eighteenth centuries) by an imposing triumphal arch, supported by two free standing columns.

View of the high altar

Cattedrale di San Pietro, interior

Sixteenth – eighteenth century

Domenico Tibaldi; Pietro Fiorini; Floriano Ambrosini; Giovanni Ambrogio Magenta; Alfonso Torreggiani

The later chapels are connected by a passageway. There is a view of the counter façade with the main door flanked by two lions, the only remains of the Romanesque “Door of the Lions”, that now support the stoop.

The Lambertini altar of the Sacrament

Cattedrale di San Pietro, interior, left nave

1734-1737

Alfonso Torreggiani

In 1734 Cardinal Prospero Lambertini commissioned Torreggiani with the completion of the Cathedral. The restoration of the cardinal’s chapel, the second on the left, dedicated to the Holy Sacrament, is the most significant example of the work of Torreggiani.

Selected bibliography:

Fanti, M., Degli Esposti, C., La chiesa cattedrale e metropolitana di San Pietro in Bologna. Guida a vedere e comprendere, Florence, 1995.
La cattedrale di San Pietro in Bologna (ed. R.Terra), Cinisello Balsamo, 1997.

Additional Copyright Information:

Copyright images: Ufficio Beni culturali ecclesiastici della diocesi di Bologna.

Citation of this web page:

Licia Giannelli, Chiara  Magalini "Cattedrale di San Pietro" in "Discover Baroque Art", Museum With No Frontiers, 2024. https://baroqueart.museumwnf.org/database_item.php?id=monument;BAR;it;Mon12;31;en

Prepared by: Licia Giannelli, Chiara Magalini
Translation by: Antonella MampieriAntonella Mampieri

SURNAME: Mampieri
NAME: Antonella

AFFILIATION: Musei Civici d’Arte Antica, Bologna

TITLE: Art Hitorian

CV:
Graduated and specialised at the University of Bologna. She is a specialist in Bolognese late Baroque art, namely sculpture. Among other subjects she has been studying nineteenth-century funerary art in the Bologna monumental cemetery, la Certosa.

Translation copyedited by: Lisa Kelman

MWNF Working Number: IT2 36

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