Rotonda di San Lorenzo

The Rotonda di San Lorenzo is a Romanesque central building from the late 11th century in the heart of the northern Italian city of Mantua. The rotunda is only a few meters south of the 13th-century Palazzo della Ragione.

Architectural History

According to unhedged oral tradition was started to build in 1083 at the instigation of Countess Matilda of Tuscany (also known as Matilda of Canossa ); he is - like almost all circular buildings of the Middle Ages - in the tradition of the Holy Sepulcher of Jerusalem. The fact that the church is about 1.50 meters below the ground level of the adjacent and built only about 150 years later, Palazzo della Ragione, suggesting that the construction on the foundations of an ancient building (probably a round temple ) was built. After - probably to be regarded as failed - structural changes by Leon Battista Alberti and Giulio Romano, the church was closed in 1579 due to disrepair for religious purposes. In the following centuries the henceforth used as a storage room building fell into disrepair and was rebuilt only in the years 1908 to 1911. In 1926 they gave the church to the care of the Dominican Order; since she is a parish church reopened to the public.

Architecture

Exterior

The articulated by 16 services presented lower part of the church building is both outside and inside built of brick and has a smaller central tower. Both components close below the respective roof eaves from having a circumferential arch frieze, above which each have a small tooth frieze appears - the extent to which these things correspond to the original findings, is not exactly to be clarified.

Interior

The interior of the church building is formed of 14 stone pillars round (without capital, but with fighters drives) and two recycled ancient columns ( spolia ) with capitals on both sides of the east-facing apse. The reconstruction of Empor zone originates largely the imagination of the restorers. Both components are spanned by trapezoidal cross vaults, which are also built of brick and covered with transverse arches; the ground floor of the vault are plastered - some medieval remains of frescoes are still recognizable.