Scurolo di Sant'Alessandro Martire
| Nome | Descrizione |
|---|---|
| Indirizzo | Piazza Conciliazione FONTANETO D'AGOGNA (NO) |
The scurolo (crypt where the relics of the Saint are conserved), rises southwards of the B.V. Assunta parish church in Fontaneto.
This church is the result of different architectonic interventions. It is first mentioned in a document of 1330, which talks about the “prato magno di Santa Maria” (great Santa Maria’s field), owned by the Benedictine Abbey of Arona. Archaeological studies, carried out in 1999 assign it as a cemetery edifice of the Roman period. Reconstructed in the second half of the fifteenth century by Filippo Maria Visconti and re-consecrated in1472, it acquires its Baroque image between 1628 and 1630, according to the prescriptions made by the bishops of Novara. Later on, in 1827, it was amplified with three aisles, by initiative of Don Martino Jelmoni.
Received in 1839 by the canonical Paolo Durio, at that time a prelate in Rome, the relics of the martyr Alessandro and transferred through pilgrimage (followed even by the countess Caterina Lucini Passalacqua Visconti), in 1841, the archpriest contacts the architect Alessandro Antonelli and asks him to design the sacellum (a small area around the altar dedicated to a minor divinity).
Antonelli is familiar to Fontaneto: since his childhood he spent his holidays at his aunt’s, Lucia Bozzi Cavallazzi.
His sister Giuseppa, was resident here since 1836 and for a certain period leaved in a wing of the castle, bought by her older brother Antonio five years before.
At the time Antonelli was commissioned to the project, his brother in law Giovanni Morotti was the mayor.
On October 1842, the professor visits the village in order to trace the edifice’s plan, in comparison to the previous one, and on September 27 the first stone is blessed. The circular structure covered by a dome, is introductory to the master’s following and more complicated experiments.
The plan (12 metres of diameter), characterized by a sequence of 12 columns embedded in the mural diaphragms, in accordance to the antonellian method characterized by the use of fulcrums, the same used in the project of the San Gudenzio’s dome in Novara. The eclectic choices are the result of technical and structural research and presence of Classic figures: such as the one that recalls the Roman Pantheon, the Corinthian order of the columns and flowered coffers, once enriched with Rose windows. The mural part was completed in 1843. For the elegant decoration the sculptor Giuseppe Argenti was contacted, who two years later will create 12 statues in terracotta, representing the saints that carry the name of the commissioners, owners of Fontaneto.
From right to left : San Melchiorre, San Luigi, San Carlo; San Giuseppe, Santa Elisabetta, San Domenico, San Sebastiano, Santa Caterina, San Gaudenzio, San Giovanni Battista.
The four angels, positioned in the pendentive of the altar and in the arch at the entrance, are also attributed to Argenti.
The ten low-reliefs in white plaster, which crown the pictures, were also commissioned to Argenti on November 29, 1847. As the same artist reports in some of his memorials, they represent:
• The emperor’s congress for the Christians persecution
• Orders to arrest the Saint
• The Saint’s arrest in cell
• The saint against the judge
• Punishments in order to convert the saint to pagan gods
• Other martyrs
• The angel’s visit to the saint in prison announcing that he will soon conquer Paradise
• The saints martyr that conduces him to death, his soul that goes to heaven in order to be gloried
• Christians find the corpse of the saint and try to subtract it from the emperor’s guards
• The saint is taken to the catacombs and deposited in an urn, like other Christians0
In 1849, the marble sculptor Stefano Bossi creates the altar.
In his project Antonelli re-proposes the form of a small temple, already used in his youth creations in 1821; the altar in San Rocco oratory in the town centre. The wood-carver Bosio, from Torino, creates a wooden-gilded urn; in September, the painter Giuseppe Raineri paints the walls using stucco and Giovanni Maggi gilds the Capitals.
On August 11, 1850 the Rotonda (the scurolo) is inaugurated, with the translation of the Saint’s relics.
This church is the result of different architectonic interventions. It is first mentioned in a document of 1330, which talks about the “prato magno di Santa Maria” (great Santa Maria’s field), owned by the Benedictine Abbey of Arona. Archaeological studies, carried out in 1999 assign it as a cemetery edifice of the Roman period. Reconstructed in the second half of the fifteenth century by Filippo Maria Visconti and re-consecrated in1472, it acquires its Baroque image between 1628 and 1630, according to the prescriptions made by the bishops of Novara. Later on, in 1827, it was amplified with three aisles, by initiative of Don Martino Jelmoni.
Received in 1839 by the canonical Paolo Durio, at that time a prelate in Rome, the relics of the martyr Alessandro and transferred through pilgrimage (followed even by the countess Caterina Lucini Passalacqua Visconti), in 1841, the archpriest contacts the architect Alessandro Antonelli and asks him to design the sacellum (a small area around the altar dedicated to a minor divinity).
Antonelli is familiar to Fontaneto: since his childhood he spent his holidays at his aunt’s, Lucia Bozzi Cavallazzi.
His sister Giuseppa, was resident here since 1836 and for a certain period leaved in a wing of the castle, bought by her older brother Antonio five years before.
At the time Antonelli was commissioned to the project, his brother in law Giovanni Morotti was the mayor.
On October 1842, the professor visits the village in order to trace the edifice’s plan, in comparison to the previous one, and on September 27 the first stone is blessed. The circular structure covered by a dome, is introductory to the master’s following and more complicated experiments.
The plan (12 metres of diameter), characterized by a sequence of 12 columns embedded in the mural diaphragms, in accordance to the antonellian method characterized by the use of fulcrums, the same used in the project of the San Gudenzio’s dome in Novara. The eclectic choices are the result of technical and structural research and presence of Classic figures: such as the one that recalls the Roman Pantheon, the Corinthian order of the columns and flowered coffers, once enriched with Rose windows. The mural part was completed in 1843. For the elegant decoration the sculptor Giuseppe Argenti was contacted, who two years later will create 12 statues in terracotta, representing the saints that carry the name of the commissioners, owners of Fontaneto.
From right to left : San Melchiorre, San Luigi, San Carlo; San Giuseppe, Santa Elisabetta, San Domenico, San Sebastiano, Santa Caterina, San Gaudenzio, San Giovanni Battista.
The four angels, positioned in the pendentive of the altar and in the arch at the entrance, are also attributed to Argenti.
The ten low-reliefs in white plaster, which crown the pictures, were also commissioned to Argenti on November 29, 1847. As the same artist reports in some of his memorials, they represent:
• The emperor’s congress for the Christians persecution
• Orders to arrest the Saint
• The Saint’s arrest in cell
• The saint against the judge
• Punishments in order to convert the saint to pagan gods
• Other martyrs
• The angel’s visit to the saint in prison announcing that he will soon conquer Paradise
• The saints martyr that conduces him to death, his soul that goes to heaven in order to be gloried
• Christians find the corpse of the saint and try to subtract it from the emperor’s guards
• The saint is taken to the catacombs and deposited in an urn, like other Christians0
In 1849, the marble sculptor Stefano Bossi creates the altar.
In his project Antonelli re-proposes the form of a small temple, already used in his youth creations in 1821; the altar in San Rocco oratory in the town centre. The wood-carver Bosio, from Torino, creates a wooden-gilded urn; in September, the painter Giuseppe Raineri paints the walls using stucco and Giovanni Maggi gilds the Capitals.
On August 11, 1850 the Rotonda (the scurolo) is inaugurated, with the translation of the Saint’s relics.