Reggio Emilia Cathedral: The Mother Church of Reggio Emilia
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.6
- Popularity
- Low
- Country
- Italy
- Primary era
- Early Modern
- Eras represented
- Medieval, Early Modern, Modern
- Civilizations
- Holy Roman Empire
- Site type
- Religious
- Remains
- Cathedral
On this page16 sections
History
Reggio Emilia Cathedral is a Roman Catholic cathedral in Italy, dedicated to the Assumption of the Virgin Mary and rooted in the Romanesque period. It is the mother church of the Diocese of Reggio Emilia-Guastalla and has served as the seat of the united diocese since 1986.
Early cathedral and medieval fortifications
A cathedral probably stood here by AD 451, when Bishop Favenzio of Reggio attended a synod in Milan. The earliest surviving documents that attest to the cathedral date from the middle of the ninth century. After Hungarian incursions led to the death of Bishop Azzo, Emperor Louis III authorized Bishop Pietro to surround the episcopal palace and cathedral with walls. This work made the cathedral part of a fortified episcopal complex.
The building’s medieval form was altered repeatedly. Its bell tower collapsed on 26 December 1228. During the episcopate of Guido da Fogliano, an octagonal tiburio, the structure raised above a church crossing, was built in 1268. At this stage, the apse was also given a curved form. The upper part of the present facade probably derives from the Malaguzzi restoration of about 1275.
Renaissance and early modern rebuilding
In 1544, Prospero Sogari, known as Il Clemente, received the commission for a new facade. Work soon stopped because resources were insufficient, leaving the facade unfinished. The statues of Adam and Eve at the main portal were installed in 1557. Above the facade, Bartolomeo Spani’s gilded-bronze Madonna and Child with the Fiordibelli donors dates from 1522.
From 1599, the Sienese architect Cosimo Pugliani substantially renewed the interior, incorporating the older Romanesque structure into a Doric entablature. The local abbot and architect Messori designed the dome in 1623, while Giuseppe Barlaam Vergnani built the nave’s barrel vaults in 1778. Francesco Fontanesi painted the dome frescoes in 1779. A strong earthquake in 1832 caused the tiburio to be lowered by several metres.
Later religious and cultural history
Since 1803, the remains of Blessed Giovanna Scopelli, an Italian religious figure, have been kept in the Rangone Chapel. Restoration and archaeological investigation also brought to light a large Roman mosaic beneath the cathedral. It was detached, restored, and transferred to the Diocesan Museum for preservation and display. The cathedral has been a national monument since 1940.
Between 2005 and 2011, the cathedral underwent experimental liturgical adaptations involving Jannis Kounellis, Hidetoshi Nagasawa, Ettore Spalletti, Claudio Parmiggiani, and Giovanni Menada. These interventions formed part of the building’s continuing religious and artistic history while preserving its accumulated medieval and early modern phases.
Remains
The cathedral stands in Piazza Camillo Prampolini in Reggio Emilia’s historic centre. Its surviving architecture brings together Romanesque, Renaissance, Mannerist, and Baroque elements. The building follows a Latin-cross plan, with a long nave crossed by a shorter transept, and measures 73.30 metres in length. Three aisles are carried by pillars and round arches, and three semicircular apses complete the eastern end. The transept and chevet, the eastern area around the apse and sanctuary, rest on the crypt.
Facade and crossing
The unfinished facade preserves a sixteenth-century lower facing designed by Prospero Sogari. Pilasters frame niches containing statues of the city’s four patron saints, Grisante, Venerio, Daria, and Gioconda. The upper portion has a Romanesque character and probably belongs to the late thirteenth-century rebuilding associated with the Malaguzzi restoration. Its original frescoes, including Christ Pantocrator, the traditional image of Christ as the all-ruling figure, and angels, were removed during the twentieth century and are preserved in the renewed Diocesan Museum.
The main portal carries statues of Adam and Eve attributed to Sogari, whose style was influenced by Michelangelo. Above the facade rises the octagonal tiburio, which also forms the cathedral’s bell-tower structure. It bears Bartolomeo Spani’s large 1522 gilded-bronze statue of the Madonna and Child with the Fiordibelli couple, who are represented as donors. The metalwork uses repoussé, a technique that raises a design by hammering it from the reverse.
Interior plan and principal spaces
A large dome rises above the crossing, while two smaller domes cover the apsidal chapels. The interior’s three-aisled arrangement retains the rounded arches and substantial forms associated with its Romanesque origins, reshaped by Pugliani’s later Doric treatment. The cathedral contains numerous sculptures from Reggio Emilia dating from the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, as well as several funerary monuments by Bartolomeo Spani. A late-Gothic wooden choir also survives within the church.
Chapels and devotional works
Rangone Chapel
The Rangone Chapel is one of the cathedral’s eight chapels. It contains the monumental tomb of Bishop Ugo Rangone, carved by Prospero Sogari, and preserves the remains of Blessed Giovanna Scopelli, which have been kept there since 1803.
Cardinal Domenico Toschi Chapel
Built in 1605 to a design by Girolamo Rainaldi, the Cardinal Domenico Toschi Chapel contains three important paintings. Giuseppe Cesari, known as Il Cavalier d’Arpino, painted the Visitation; Cristoforo Roncalli, known as Il Pomarancio, painted the Nativity of the Virgin; and Domenico Cresti, known as Il Passignano, painted the Assumption.
Brami and Fiordibelli Chapels
The Brami Chapel contains an altarpiece by Jacopo Palma the Younger. The Fiordibelli Chapel contains a painting by Giovan Francesco Barbieri, known as Guercino. Other works in the cathedral include paintings by Augusto Mussini, known as Fra Paolo, Carlo Bononi, Francesco Vellani, Sebastiano Vellani, Sebastiano Vercellesi, and Orazio Talami.
Chapel of the Blessed Sacrament
Formerly under the patronage of the Giroldi family, the Chapel of the Blessed Sacrament contains four statues of prophets by Paolo Emilio Besenzi, dated 1634. Its altar is surmounted by an elaborate marble ciborium, a canopy-like structure over an altar, crowned by a bronze image of the risen Christ. Frescoes painted in the 1530s by Giovanni Giarola, a Reggio painter and pupil of Correggio, were discovered in the chapel.
Notai Chapel
The Notai Chapel contains the Madonna Tacoli bas-relief, a sculpture projecting slightly from its background, on a tomb slab for Bos Tacoli dating to about 1250. The image is venerated as the Madonna della Salute, whose feast is observed on 21 November. An Annibale Carracci painting of the Virgin appearing to Saints Luke and Catherine was formerly hung in the chapel.
Altar, relics, and medieval sculpture
The high altar carries an Assumption altarpiece by Federico Zuccari. A medieval bas-relief of Christ enthroned among angels, once placed on the altar, is now preserved in the Diocesan Museum. The cathedral also holds a richly decorated reliquary of Saint Catherine by Raffaele Grimaldi. A reliquary is a container for a saint’s relics, and the ornament of this example reflects the French school. The Diocesan Museum additionally holds Bartolomeo Spani’s bust reliquaries of Saints Crisante and Daria.
Crypt and Roman mosaic
Archaeological excavation in the crypt uncovered a Roman mosaic pavement dating to the fourth century AD. Found about four metres below ground, it covers approximately 13 square metres and depicts pagan scenes involving rituals and oriental deities. Its size and design indicate that it formed the floor of a large room. Known as Tesserae Versicolores, the detached and restored mosaic is displayed in the Diocesan Museum with fragments from ancient churches associated with the period of Matilda of Tuscany, the influential medieval noblewoman also known as Matilda of Canossa.
Frescoes and surviving archaeological evidence
Restoration revealed traces of thirteenth- and fourteenth-century frescoes in various parts of the nave and crypt. Together with the frescoes from the Chapel of the Blessed Sacrament and the medieval paintings once associated with the facade, these discoveries preserve evidence of the cathedral’s changing decoration across several centuries.
