Our Lady Of The Snows, Quarantoli
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The pieve of Our Lady of the Snows (in Italian: ''pieve di Santa Maria della Neve'') is a Romanesque church located in Quarantoli, village near Mirandola, in the province of Modena and
Roman Catholic Diocese of Carpi The Italian Catholic Diocese of Carpi ( la, Dioecesis Carpensis) is in Emilia Romagna, Italy. It is a suffragan of the Archdiocese of Modena-Nonantola.
.


History

Already existing in the 9th century during the feud of Ugo di Maginfredo, the presence of the parish church is attested in a historical document of 1044, which mentions the important cultural and religious nucleus of Quarantoli, like the
abbey of Nonantola Nonantola Abbey, dedicated to Saint Sylvester, is a former a Benedictine monastery and ''prelature nullius'' in the commune of Nonantola, c. 10 km north-east of Modena, in the Emilia Romagna region of Italy. The abbey church remains as a basi ...
. The church was completely rebuilt in the 12th century by Matilde di Canossa. The altar bears the date 15 November 1114, when the consecration of the parish church took place. In the 15th century there were some restorations and the bell tower was built. Around 1670, the façade was rebuilt in
Baroque The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...
style. In 1821 the parish of Quarantoli passed from the diocese of Reggio Emilia to that of Carpi. In 1915, numerous works were carried out to enhance the Romanesque origins, which also doubled the length of the naves, to which a presbytery surrounded by an ambulatory was added. In May 2012 the church was severely damaged by the Emilia earthquake: the wall of the left aisle collapsed, the façade is unsafe and the whole church is unfit for use.


Architecture

The original structure of the Romanesque building, with a basilica plan, consists of aisles ending in three apses that are divided into five bays of segmental arches resting on bilobed pillars. On the south side of the nave there is a reconstructed
pulpit A pulpit is a raised stand for preachers in a Christian church. The origin of the word is the Latin ''pulpitum'' (platform or staging). The traditional pulpit is raised well above the surrounding floor for audibility and visibility, access ...
containing some 12th-13th century Romanesque sculptures depicting the symbols of the Four Evangelists: on the front side of the pulpit there is a lion (St Mark), a bull (St Luke) and an eagle (St John), while on the right side there is an effigy of St Matthew. These ancient sculptures are attributed to the circle of
Wiligelmo Wiligelmo (also known as Wiligelmus, Gulielmo da Modena, Cousin of Elmo or Guglielmo da Modena) was an Italian sculptor active between c. 1099 and 1120. He was the first sculptor in Italy to produce large-format sculptures and sign his work. Wil ...
(who also created the
cathedral of Modena Modena Cathedral ( it, Cattedrale Metropolitana di Santa Maria Assunta e San Geminiano but colloquially known as simply ''Duomo di Modena'') is a Roman Catholic cathedral in Modena, Italy, dedicated to the Assumption of the Virgin Mary and Saint ...
and its decorations). The pulpit is then supported by two stone telamons representing respectively a young man and an old man kneeling and suffering. On the left side of the presbytery there is a loggia rebuilt in recent times by reusing columns and capitals originally used in an ancient cloister that no longer exists. The capitals, each one different from the others, are carved with different themes, such as animals, leaves, lions and horned anthropomorphic heads. The baptismal chapel is decorated with a scagliola antependium of the Carpi school from 1686 and a 16th-century ''Madonna and Child'' of the Venetian-Cretan school. The altar is made of a pair of elegant late-Romanesque pillars of the Modena school, one surmounted by a sculpted cubic capital with sloping foliage and the other sculpted in a bundle of knotted columns with a volute capital, supporting the
mensa Mensa may refer to: * Mensa International, an organization for people with a high intelligence quotient (IQ) * Mensa (name), a name and list of people with the given name or surname * Mensa (constellation), a constellation in the southern sky * Men ...
.


See also

* Quarantoli *
Our Lady of the Snows Saint Mary of the Snows, also Our Lady of the Snows and Saint Mary Major, may refer to: Dedication * Dedication of the Basilica of St Mary Major, a liturgical feast day previously known in Latin as ''Dedicatio Sanctæ Mariæ ad Nives'', transla ...


References


Bibliography

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External links

* {{Cite web, title=Chiesa parrocchiale di S. Maria ad Nives / Chiesa Madonna della Neve di Quarantoli, url=https://openricostruzione.regione.emilia-romagna.it/intervento/f709, website=Open Ricostruzione, publisher=Regione Emilia-Romagna Roman Catholic churches in Mirandola