Consolation Church (Genoa) – Wikipedia

The Consolation Church or, more exactly, Church of Our Lady of the Consolation and San Vincenzo Martire (however also known by the name of Church of Santa Rita ) is one of the main places of Catholic worship in Genoa. It is located in the San Vincenzo district, in the central via XX Settembre and is part of the Vicariate Carignano-Foce of the Archdiocese of Genoa. ^[first]

The first church on the hill of the Zerbino [ change | Modifica Wikitesto ]

Of a church entitled to our lady of the consolation there is news, in Genoa, starting from 1475. This church, linked to the name of the blessed Battista Poggi, was annexed to the convent of the consolation congregation, a reformed congregation that was part of the order Augustinian. The initial location was outside the city walls, in the locality called Arctoria, on the slopes of the hill of the Zerbino (from the Genoese term “Zerbo”, which means “musk”). The track of the new walls, built in 1632, came to pass right above it. In the following decades, the need to improve the city’s defenses obliged to further clear the area near the walls, making it necessary to eliminate the conventual complex, demolished in December 1681 despite the opposition of the Augustinian fathers. ^{[2] [3]}

The current church [ change | Modifica Wikitesto ]

The Augustinians obtained in the circumstance from the Republic of Genoa the authorization to build a new convent on the area where the current church is located today. The construction took place from 1681 to 1706, on a project incarmented to Piero Antonio Corradi, but the church was open to worship as early as 1693 under the patronage of the Genoese Durazzo families, the Torre, Canevari and Lercari-Castiglione. In 1769 it was equipped with the dome, designed by Simone Cantoni. In 1864 the facade was made. ^{[2] [3]}

Initially the Augustinians, hosted in the nearby Pinelli Palace, currently incorporated into the appurtenances of the church, officiated the religious functions in the nearby parish church of San Vincenzo. Next to this first accommodation they began to build the new church. ^[2]

Over time, works of art have been collected from the ancient location in the Church and from various suppressed city churches, however the Augustinians preferred to dedicate the resources available to the construction of a convent that also had a cultural reference function, rather than all ’embellishment of the Church. In fact, if few are the eighteenth -century works of art, however commissioned by benefactors of the aforementioned families, the convent extended on an area of ​​10,000 square meters and had four floors, one of which occupied by the library. ^[2]

A large eighteenth -century cloister, which has remained unfinished, had also begun but never ended, which towards the end of the nineteenth century became the seat of the eastern market in via XX Settembre, as it still remains. Of the original cloister, the market includes the colonnades on the sides placed towards the church and to via XX Settembre as well as the portal closed on the square of access to the market in via Galata, while the other two sides were completed when the eastern market was built. ^[2]

With the new Napoleonic domination, and the consequent edicts of the Bonaparte of suppression of religious orders, in 1810 the Augustinians were forced to abandon the church which, passed to the diocesan clergy, in 1813 was erected to the title of parish, adding to its title also that of the nearby church of San Vincenzo, who had given its name to the homonymous sestiere, suppressed because for the small dimensions it had become insufficient to play the parish role. The Augustinians, who still hold the parish, returned to you in 1816. ^[2]

From the return of the Augustinians, throughout the nineteenth century, the decoration of the church was completed, by Michele Canzio ^[4] , Giuseppe Isola ^[5] , Giuseppe Paganelli, Giovanni Quinzio and Francesco Seminino. ^[6]

The building was officially consecrated in 1875 by the Archbishop of Pisa Monsignor Paolo Micallef. After 1875 new cycles of frescoes were made inside the church. ^[2]

In the twentieth century, the cult of Santa Rita da Cascia had great impulse, to which an altar was dedicated, previously named in San Rocco. On May 22, on the occasion of the anniversary of the Saint, numerous faithful take part in the traditional blessing of the roses. ^[2] On February 12, 1961, Cardinal Giuseppe Siri blessed the new artistic bronze door, with the two doors dedicated to Sant’Agostino and San Tommaso di Villanova.

External [ change | Modifica Wikitesto ]

The baroque facade was completed by Carlo Biale only in 1864. The copy of a 16th century marble statue is placed on the main entrance portal, depicting the Madonna and Child . The original, coming from the church of Arctor, very damaged by war events, is now preserved within the church.

The entrance portals are now located at a lower level than the road surface, because via XX Settembre, open in the last decade of the nineteenth century, was built at a higher altitude than the ancient Via della Consolazione, on which it opened L ‘Entry of the Church. ^{[2] [3] [6]}

Internal [ change | Modifica Wikitesto ]

The church has three naves, separated by quadrangular pillars. Above the main altar a large crucifix on table (about 5 m x 4 m) is suspended, probably from the suppressed church of Sant’Agostino in Sarzano, painted around 1350 by an unknown pupil of Pietro Lorenzetti, mentioned as The master of Santa Maria di Castello , for another table preserved at this church. ^[2]

The vault of the central nave and the counter -deal were frescoed in 1874 by Giuseppe Isola ( Visions of the apocalypse , Glory of Our Lady of the Consolation It is Giuditta is triumphant in Betulia ), while the frescoes of the lateral naves are the work of Giovanni Quinzio. ^{[2] [3]}

In the presbytery a fragment of wall is preserved with a small chiaroscuro fresco depicting the Deposition , attributed to Perin del Vaga and coming from the sacristy of the old church of Arctoria. ^[7] The walls of the presbytery were frescoed by Cesare Maccari (1889). ^[2]

In the apse, whose time was frescoed in 1825 by Filippo Alessio ^[8] The choir is located, with eighteenth -century wooden stalls elaborate. ^[2]

Lateral chapels [ change | Modifica Wikitesto ]

Along the nave there are ten chapels, five on each side, which host the secondary altars.

Altars on the right [ change | Modifica Wikitesto ]

• First altar: dedicated to San Giuseppe and Blessed Maria Teresa Sascins, with a canvas by Domenico Fiasella ( San Tommaso di Villanova distributes the goods to the poor ). ^[3]
• According to Altare: dedicated to the Immaculate Conception.
• Third altar: dedicated to San Nicola da Tolentino, eighteenth -century wooden group depicting the saint, by Agostino Storace, pupil of Maragliano, heavily remodeled in the nineteenth century. ^[3]
• Fourth altar: dedicated to San Vincenzo. Martyrdom of San Vincenzo (1605), attributed to the school of Lazzaro Tavarone, coming from the church of the same name, while on the pillar between this chapel and the next there is a bas -relief in enamelled terracotta (1475) representing the Nativity of the school of Andrea della Robbia. ^[3]
• Fifth altar: dedicated to Sant’Agostino or to the Madonna della Cintura, with eighteenth -century frescoes by Paolo Gerolamo Piola ( Baptism of S. Agostino It is St. Peter who receives the keys from Jesus ) and a large marble group by Bernardo Schiaffino ^[9] , depicting The Madonna with the Saints Agostino and Monica . ^[3]

Altars on the left [ change | Modifica Wikitesto ]

• First altar: dedicated to San Giovanni da San Facondo, with an eighteenth-century painting by Francesco Narice (1719-1785) ( San Giovanni da San Facondo miraculously saves a child who has fallen into a well ).
• According to Altare: dedicated to San Lorenzo, with an altarpiece by Domenico Piola depicting the Martyrdom of San Lorenzo . ^[3]
• Third altar: dedicated to the Madonna del Rosario: there is a seventeenth -century altar machine, carved by Giovanni Battista Santacroce and coming from the church of San Vincenzo, while the two statues in the niches ( San Domenico It is Santa Caterina da Siena ) are attributed to the Maragliano shop. ^[3]
• Fourth altar: dedicated to Santa Rita: on the altar an oval shovel depicting the saint, by Tito Troja (19th century).
• Fifth altar: dedicated to Our Lady of Health: there is a small painting, an eighteenth -century copy of a painting by the Sassoferrato, coming from the disappearance of Santa Maria della Pace, which stood right in front of the church of the consolation. The altar of this chapel was originally the main altar of the church of San Camillo, transferred here in 1813. On the walls of the chapel various works by Giuseppe Paganelli.

Bodies in rods [ change | Modifica Wikitesto ]

The organ in Canne Giacomo Locatelli is located on the large cantoria placed in the apse opus 48 ^[ten] , built in 1880 and restored by the Mascioni company in 1975. The instrument, with a fully mechanical transmission, has three keyboards of 61 notes and a concave pedal of 27.

In the same apse, on the floor, the organ in Canne Giacomo Locatelli is located opus 47 , built in 1879. The entirely expressive tool is mechanical transmission and has a single keyboard of 58 notes with the first extended chromatic octave and a concave pedal of 24 notes.

Sacristy [ change | Modifica Wikitesto ]

The sacristy, which can be accessed from the bottom of the right nave, is furnished with eighteenth -century furniture; On the vault frescoes depicting the Gloria di Sant’Agostino by G.B. Merano. In the corridor adjacent to the sacristy there is a statue of Sant’Agostino , work by Pasquale Bocciardo, while in the vestibule there is a large processional crucifix attributed to Bernardo Schiaffino.

Refectory [ change | Modifica Wikitesto ]

A significant collection of paintings is preserved in the refectory of the convent. Among the most significant works:

• Madonna with Saints Agostino, Rocco and Sebastiano , by Antonio da Como (1529)
• Holy Family , by Orazio De Ferrari (1648)
• Last Supper , recurring subject in conventual refectories, attributed to Luca Cambiaso
• Deposition , by Antonio Seminino (1547)
• San Rocco in adoration of the Madonna , by Domenico Bocciardo (mid -18th century)
• Assumption of Mary , by the Augustinian friar Agostino Delfino, who died in 1814 and buried in the same church
• Baptism of Sant’Agostino It is Translation of the image of the mother of the good advice , by Antonio Giolfi (18th century).

• Franco Boggero, Church of Our Lady of Consolation , 1977
• Antonio Cappellini, The Church of Our Lady of the Consolation , 1933
• THERE. Cervetto, Historical notes and inventory of the parish church of San Vincenzo and our lady of the consolation , 1920, manuscript owned by the Augustinian fathers.
• Nicololo De franchi, Villas and sacred places in Bisagno in the fifteenth century , is The history of the Genoese Vol. IV, 1984