The Column of Santa Felicita is a monumental column with

Corinthian capital The Corinthian order (Greek: Κορινθιακός ρυθμός, Latin: ''Ordo Corinthius'') is the last developed of the three principal classical orders of Ancient Greek architecture and Roman architecture. The other two are the Doric order w ...

standing in front of the church of

Santa Felicita Santa Felicita (Church of St Felicity) is a Roman Catholic church in Florence, region of Tuscany, Italy, probably the oldest in the city after San Lorenzo. In the 2nd century, Syrian Greek merchants settled in the area south of the Arno and are th ...

in Florence, region of Tuscany, Italy. Colonna di santa felicita 12

History

Putatively the column was erected to celebrate the 13th-century ''victories'' or crusades led by the Dominican friar Peter of Verona against the

Cathar heresy Catharism (; from the grc, καθαροί, katharoi, "the pure ones") was a Christian dualist or Gnostic movement between the 12th and 14th centuries which thrived in Southern Europe, particularly in northern Italy and southern France. Follow ...

in Northern Italy. In 1484, the capital had a terracotta statue ''Peter of Verona preaching'', as he had to the Florentines and organizing his militia of the "Società di Santa Maria" used to persecute heretics. The column was financed by Amerigo De Rossi, whose ancestor was a follower of the Dominican preacher. There is some evidence that the column was erected earlier at the site of some former paleochristian tombs, and was surmounted by crosses. The ''St Peter of Verona'' statue fell in 1723, but was replaced by a marble statue by

Antonio Montauti Antonio Montauti (1685 - 1740) was an 18th-century Italy, Italian sculptor active in Florence and Rome. Biography He was a pupil of Giuseppe Piamontini. His patron, Cardinal Francesco Maria de' Medici, obtained the first known works circa 1708– ...

, that itself was removed in the 19th century.Nuova guida ovvero Descrizione storico-artistico-critica della città
by Federigo Fantozzi, Florence (1857), page 616. Further injury was added when the Germans, destroying the bridges to the

Arno river The Arno is a river in the Tuscany region of Italy. It is the most important river of central Italy after the Tiber. Source and route The river originates on Monte Falterona in the Casentino area of the Apennines, and initially takes a s ...

, mined the access to Ponte Vecchio, shattering the column. It has been cobbled together by metal rings, and it subsists in the tiny piazza crowded by tourist booths, forlorn in state, secular in apparel, shorn of all emblems of prior purposes.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Felicita Florence Fel