Santa Maria delle Carceri

Santa Maria delle Carceri is a church in the Tuscan town of Prato. The building was built in the early Renaissance period and is one of the masterpieces of Giuliano da Sangallo. The church is minor since 1939 in the rank of a Basilica.

Location and Naming

The church is located in the historic center of Prato immediately adjacent to the Castello dell'Imperatore named after her at the Piazza Santa Maria delle Carceri. It has from the dungeons originally located here ( Italian: carceri ) your name.

Architectural History

Giuliano da Sangallo built the church on behalf of Lorenzo de Medicis from 1484 to 1495. The reason was that an on- a dungeon wall painting of Mary was miraculous. Da Sangallo was oriented for the construction of buildings of Filippo Brunelleschi. Nevertheless, the floor remained until 1885 without the disguise of white and green marble, only this year it was, although unfinished, run.

Facade

The facades of the transepts are applied uniaxial and two storeys. They are limited to the respective corners out of double pilasters made ​​, following in the basement of the Doric order, upstairs by the Ionic order. The portals are captured by simple triangular gables. In the upper third of the areas of the basement dreifeldrig -scale marble inlays divide the walls, on the short ends of the cross arms are executed einfeldrig. Upstairs each one per cross arm centrally -scale window breaks through the walls, here the outlines are each just either side of the window. The marble fields follow Florentine models, such as the local Baptistery. The arms crowning triangular pediment is kept simple and easily cranked. About the transepts rises the broken windows of round cupola drum with the final lantern.

Ground plan and Home Affairs

The basic structure after the church was built on the plan of a Greek cross. The cross arms are separated by strong transverse arches of the central space, they are covered by barrel vaults. The interior of the central dome structure is kept simple. The capitals of the Wandpilaster follow a subtle variant of the Corinthian order, da Sangallo used a similar Kapitellform in the courtyard of the Palazzo Gondi in Florence.

A special feature is the encircling frieze of majolica. This as well as the figures of the four evangelists in the pendentives of the dome are works by Andrea della Robbia from the year 1492.

The church was itself a model for other central buildings of the High Renaissance, known for example San Biagio in Montepulciano.