San Girolamo, also known as Santi Girolamo e Vitale is a

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 ...

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...

church in central

Reggio Emilia Reggio nell'Emilia ( egl, Rèz; la, Regium Lepidi), usually referred to as Reggio Emilia, or simply Reggio by its inhabitants, and known until 1861 as Reggio di Lombardia, is a city in northern Italy, in the Emilia-Romagna region. It has abou ...

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

. It is located on Via San Girolamo #24.

History

A church at the site may have existed since the 4th century, but with no direct documentation. It is known that since the 10th century, a church dedicated to San Vitale Martire, and governed by monks of the Convent of San Rafaelle. The church building at the site, poorly conserved, was transferred in 1350 by the patronage of Count Valerio Valeri to the

Franciscan The Franciscans are a group of related Mendicant orders, mendicant Christianity, Christian Catholic religious order, religious orders within the Catholic Church. Founded in 1209 by Italian Catholic friar Francis of Assisi, these orders include t ...

flagellant Flagellants are practitioners of a form of mortification of the flesh by whipping their skin with various instruments of penance. Many Christian confraternities of penitents have flagellants, who beat themselves, both in the privacy of their dwel ...

Confraternity of St Jerome and underwent reconstruction. In 1600, a wealthy member of the confraternity, Ippollito Pratonieri, after a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, set aside an endowment to reproduce the crypt of the

Church of the Holy Sepulchre The Church of the Holy Sepulchre, hy, Սուրբ Հարության տաճար, la, Ecclesia Sancti Sepulchri, am, የቅዱስ መቃብር ቤተክርስቲያን, he, כנסיית הקבר, ar, كنيسة القيامة is a church i ...

. This reconstruction, begun in 1646 and designed by Gaspare Vigarani and completed by Girolamo Beltrami and Francesco Mori, led to the Baroque interiors we see today. The exterior entrance is a two story three bay brick facade with an open ground portico, all bays flanked by pilasters. The interior is peculiar and eclectic, and consists of three prayer halls linked by corridors and stairs. The atrium stairs are meant to be a replica of the

Scala Santa The ( en, Holy Stairs, it, Scala Santa) are a set of 28 white marble steps that are Roman Catholic relics located in an edifice on extraterritorial property of the Holy See in Rome, Italy proximate to the Archbasilica of Saint John in Lateran ...

in Rome, and lead up to two flanking rectangular oratories. Next the circular dome (Rotonda), dedicated to Saints Simone and Giuda, is surrounded two tiers of colonnades, Solomonic atop

Corinthian Corinthian or Corinthians may refer to: *Several Pauline epistles, books of the New Testament of the Bible: **First Epistle to the Corinthians **Second Epistle to the Corinthians **Third Epistle to the Corinthians (Orthodox) *A demonym relating to ...

, placed one on top of the other, decorated with stucco statues of saints and a central altar. The center of the dome ceiling is frescoed with a circle of angels. Below the Rotonda, is the crypt or ''Sotterranea'', built with the proportions measured by Pratonieri, was meant to be a replica of the sepulchre of Christ. The church is decorated with flowers during Christmas.Citta di Reggio San Girolamo
The Confraternity of the church commissioned from

Camillo Procaccini 300px, ''Nativity'' by Camillo Procaccini Camillo Procaccini (3 March 1561 at Parma – 21 August 1629) was an Italian painter. He has been posthumously referred to as the ''Vasari of Lombardy'', for his prolific Mannerist fresco decoration. Bor ...

(1555-1629) an altarpiece depicting the ''Madonna and Child with Saints Vitalis, Jerome and Francis'', was looted by the Napoleonic forces, and now on display in the

Galleria Estense The Galleria Estense is an art gallery in the heart of Modena, centred around the collection of the d’Este family: rulers of Modena, Ferrara and Reggio from 1289 to 1796. Located on the top floor of the ''Palazzo dei Musei'', on the St. Augusti ...

of Modena.

References

Roman Catholic churches in Reggio Emilia 17th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in Italy Baroque architecture in Reggio Emilia 1646 establishments in Italy Roman Catholic churches completed in 1646 {{Italy-church-stub