Duomo of Pavia.
It proved to be quite a challenge to find a restaurant in Pavia that was open for lunch. It was August and many Italians were on vacation. Fortunately, a restaurant named Miscusi on the Piazza del Duomo gave us a warm welcome. While we sat outside in the shade and enjoyed excellent pasta dishes, we also had a good view of the Duomo of the city, also known as the cathedral of Santo Stefano and Santa Maria Assunta. The Duomo, with its imposing dome, was built between 1488 and 1933, and the story of its construction has a lot in common with the construction of the cathedral of Milan. It is a story that is characterised by big plans, huge financial difficulties and endless delays.
History
Pavia originally had two cathedrals. Standing side by side were the summer cathedral of Santo Stefano and the winter cathedral of Santa Maria Maggiore (alternatively known as Santa Maria del Popolo). At the end of the fifteenth century a plan was developed to replace these two buildings with a single grandiose new building. Construction of the new cathedral started on 29 June 1488, and few of those present will have suspected that the project would take a massive 445 years. The first architects were Cristoforo Rocchi (died 1497) and Giovanni Antonio Amadeo (1447-1522). They worked under the direction of Donato Bramante (1444-1514), a man who would leave his mark on the building. It is claimed that Francesco di Giorgio Martini (1439-1501) and even Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) contributed to the cathedral as well. After them many more architects would be hired, including Gian Giacomo Dolcebuono (ca. 1445-1510), Pellegrino Tibaldi (1527-1596) – who later worked as lead architect of the Duomo of Milan as well –, Benedetto Alfieri (1699-1767) and Carlo Maciachini (1818-1899).
The Duomo, seen from the river Ticino. On the left the Ponte Coperto.
The new cathedral was completed in 1930-1933 thanks to the efforts of Giuseppe Ballerini, bishop of Pavia between 1924 and 1933. During his episcopate the two projected arms of the transept were finally built. The completion of the Duomo is commemorated on a plaque which mentions not just Giuseppe Ballerini, but also Pope Pius XI (1922-1939) and Benito Mussolini, capo del governo (head of the government). In the four and a half centuries prior to its completion there had been heated discussion about the form of the new Duomo. Ultimately the shape of a Greek cross was chosen, with the cross measuring 83 by 83 metres. There had also been discussions about the size and height of the dome of the building. The completed dome reaches a height of 97.5 metres and is among the largest and highest in all of Italy. To the left of the Duomo there was originally a tower known as the Torre Civica. This tower collapsed on 17 March 1989, claiming the lives of four people. The remains of the Torre Civica are still visible today.
Things to see
While the Duomo is undeniably an impressive building, it is also a bit boring. The nineteenth-century façade of Maciachini consists almost entirely of brick. The only decorations are two marble galleries. The most eye-catching element is of course the enormous dome, which can be seen from many locations in Pavia, whether one is standing in the Piazza della Vittoria north of the cathedral or at the Ponte Coperto on the other side of the river Ticino (see the photo above).
The interior of the Duomo arouses similar feelings: big and impressive, but also rather void and monotonous. I personally thought the most interesting work of art in the building was the so-called altar of Saint Syrus, which can be found in the right transept. Saint Syrus or – in Italian – San Siro was, according to tradition, the first bishop of Pavia, although I tricked the football-loving part of my family into thinking he was the first president of AC Milan (the stadium AC Milan and Internazionale use is informally called San Siro, although its official name is Stadio Giuseppe Meazza). Syrus’ historicity is rather dubious. He supposedly served as bishop of Pavia in the first half of the fourth century, but at the same time he is supposed to have been the little boy who handed Christ five loaves of bread and two fish, which the Saviour then multiplied miraculously. The story should obviously be dismissed for being chronologically impossible. Moreover, John 6:9, while telling the story, never mentions the name of the boy. Inside the altar the relics of the saint are kept. The marble altar is the work of the sculptor Tommaso Orsolino (1587-1675) from Genua. On the bottom part of the altar we see the story of little Syrus with the loaves and fish, while in the larger scene higher up he is already bishop of Pavia and receives the keys of the city from the Madonna and Child.
Feeding the multitude.
Tommaso Orsolino was also responsible for the altar of the Confraternita del suffragio. The name of the altar has nothing to do with suffrage (voting rights), but refers to the Catholic mass that aims to grant the souls in Purgatory a seat in Heaven after all. The altar is a nice piece of sculpture too. And that is something that really struck me in the Duomo of Pavia: the sculptures are usually better and more interesting than the paintings. The stucco work that adorns the central apse in the back of the cathedral is also very good. Here precious relics are kept, i.e. three thorns from the crown that Jesus was forced to wear on the day of the Crucifixion. The seventeenth-century balcony of the apse has two statues, which represent Religion and the Fatherland. Religion is a woman, but rather surprisingly she is wearing a papal tiara. It made me think of Pope Joan. I then found one of the very few interesting paintings in the cathedral in the Cappella della Madonna del Rosario in the right transept. The chapel has an altarpiece of the Madonna and Child and Saints Dominicus and Alexander of Bergamo. The work was painted by Bernardino Gatti, nicknamed Il Sojaro (ca. 1495-1576). Around the central scene we see the Joyful, Sorrowful and Glorious Mysteries that are part of the Cult of the Rosary.
Sources: Trotter travel guide Northwest Italy (2016), p. 398 and Duomo di Pavia – Wikipedia