Cathedral of Enna
Description

Cathedral of Enna

enna_chiesamadre1  

Built at the behest of Queen Eleonora d'Angiò in 1307, wife of Frederick II of Aragon, on the remains of the ancient mother church dedicated to Santa Maria Majuri, and dedicated to Santa Maria Assunta.

The large church built on a vast embankment located along the northern limit of Mount Enna, has a basilica plan with three naves and a transept. Originally it must have had an entirely Gothic aspect as evidenced by the surviving parts of the Aragonese plant. Today to embellish the church the embankment is flanked on two sides by an imposing scenic staircase in Calascibetta sandstone with a beautiful golden color.

The fire that destroyed part of the naves and the roof in 1446, leaving the three apses unharmed, prompted the ecclesiastical and civil authorities to ask Pope Eugene IV for a 7-year Jubilee to encourage reconstruction. This event is remembered by the Holy Door placed on the side of the transept, walled up, framed on the sides by a Gothic plant with columns whose capitals bear a series of grappa leaves, which are grafted at the corners as a function of buttresses and at the same time translate in a decorative expedient, the cordoned frame has an arch shape, decorated in the lunette with a serrated decoration on the top closed by a cuspidate aedicule.

The works will continue over the centuries, first for the consolidation of the building and then for its internal decoration which will make it very different from the original fourteenth-century structure of which only the external apsidal part and one of the side apses remain. The Florentine sculptor Raffaele Rosso was commissioned to reconstruct the piliere in which he affixed the date and signature, then the stonemason Antonino Catrini da Ficarra was called to carve the fifth piliere, also dated and signed and in 1560 Giandomenico Gagini completed two other pilieri with bases decorated with cherubs and griffins. It was therefore necessary to restore all the pilieri and the architect Jacopino Salemi was called who reduced the proportions of the pilieri for greater stability of the building and designed the portal of the side door formed by four rudent columns, two on each side, with Corinthian capital in chalky marl , and a tympanum within which is inserted the marble sculptural group depicting San Martino giving the cloak to the poor. In the same period Andrea Russo da Collesano was commissioned to carve the roof with the help of turners, rough-cutters and carvers who worked for 13 years on the work he conceived. Russo himself provided and directed the work for the construction of the frames and decorative elements of the apse, and provided for the creation of a special chapel for the baptistery closed by a wrought iron gate.

enna_chiesamadre6

In 1589 Scipione di Guido carved the choir, the organ stage and the "Vara" of the Madonna. In imitation of the work of Scipione di Guido, the stage of the choir was built by the Messina carver Giuseppe Mazzeo. Pietro Rosso, master plasterer from Palermo was commissioned to decorate the apse and the arches. But the most significant works with which the Duomo was endowed are the five paintings placed in the central apse among the stuccos and the work of the Florentine Filippo Paladini. All five works exalt the Virgin in an organic celebratory cycle; we recognize the Presentation of Mary in the temple, the Immaculate Conception, the Visit of Mary to Elizabeth, the presentation of Jesus in the temple and the Madonna Assunta.

Meanwhile, the bell tower rebuilt after the fire despite the continuous maintenance interventions probably due to the grandeur and above all for the structural heaviness of the work collapsed in 1619, saving a large part of the church. In memory, an inscription carved on a wooden beam was placed which reads as follows: Sustinuit Virgo Ruiturum a Culmine Tectum 1619. It was rebuilt for the first time but it collapsed again, it was said due to the weight of the spire covered in majolica. A new bell tower was therefore designed by the architect Clemente Bruno which remained incomplete because it was realized that the old foundations did not allow the planned height. Bruno himself was responsible for the design of the wardrobe in the sacristy and carved by the master Ranfaldi brothers, the panels that narrate scenes from the Old and New Testament in simple language are of considerable artistic value. The roof of the transept was made in 1659 by masters from Catania directed by the head master Giovan Battista Caruso. This wooden ceiling bears inscriptions enclosed in shields that indicate when the work was completed. The transept was completed with stucco decorations designed by the Ennese painter Vincenzo Trimoglie, by the master Giovan Calogero Calamaro from Nicosia. In 1672 the painter Vincenzo Ruggeri delivered 14 paintings, 12 narrate glories of Basilian saints and Enna saints, one depicts the Assumption of the Virgin the other the Adoration of the Magi.

enna_chiesamadre93

The five altarpieces attributed to the Flemish painter Guglielmo Borremans, representing the Madonna del Piliere, Saints Peter and Paul, the Baptism of Jesus and Saint Martin, date back to the 700th century. The last impressive decorative work concerns the chapel where the statue of the Madonna was kept behind the painting of the visitation painted by Basile, which it was decided to cover with colored marble and for this reason the sculptor Andrea Amato was called.

The Cathedral is the seat of the Confraternity Maria SS. Della Visitazione founded on April 20, 1874 by the parish priest Don Carmelo Savoca to make the "Congregation of the Nudes" legally valid, which brought together the bearers of the Nave d'oro during the feast of July 2. This is the day of the feast of the patron saint of the city, the Madonna della Visitazione, the city is awakened at dawn by the sound of 101 cannon shots followed by a solemn mass. In the afternoon the statue of the Patroness mounted on the traditional “Vara” called Nave d'Oro is carried on the shoulder through the streets of the historic center from the Cathedral to the church of Montesalvo. The confreres of the Compagnia di Maria SS. of the Visitation, called “Ignudi” wear a white coat divided into two parts with laced edges, a light blue scapular in which the effigy of the Madonna is embroidered, a white cape. The bearers, in the traditional number of 125 and entitled by inheritance to the place, are distinguished by having tied a band crosswise from the shoulder blade to the side of a blue color. The other brothers wear the typical blue cape and all are barefoot. The simulacrum is preceded by the statues of San Giuseppe and San Michele Arcangelo also carried on the shoulders and bare feet. Arrived in the Monte area, after having crossed the city from one side to the other along narrow alleys, the traditional meeting takes place between the fercolo of the Madonna and the wooden statues of Santa Elisabetta and San Zaccaria previously taken from the church of Montesalvo and placed to wait , and to remember in the symbolic gesture the visit that Mary made to Elizabeth and which justifies the name "Visitation" of the Feast. After the first Sunday in which the simulacrum has been moved to the church of Montesalvo, the so-called Lumine begins, i.e. celebrations dedicated for a day to a particular worker. Two Sundays after arriving in the church of Montesalvo, the simulacrum is brought back to the Mother Church where it remains on display for another week and then placed in its special chapel. With this function the party ends.

(Text source: Municipality of Enna)

Card insertion: Ignatius Caloggero

Photo: Ignazio Caloggero

Information contributions: Ignazio Caloggero, Web 

Note: The populating of the files of the Heritage database proceeds in incremental phases: cataloging, georeferencing, insertion of information and images. The cultural property in question has been cataloged, georeferenced and the first information entered. In order to enrich the information content, further contributions are welcome, if you wish you can contribute through our area "Your Contributions"

Disclaimer note

 

Rate it (1 to 5)
3.205
Send a notice to the publisher
[contact-form-7 id="18385"]
Share