Description
The Church of San Sebastiano is the Renaissance temple that Leon Battista Alberti designed on the edge of Mantua's centre, on the road that led to the Te: an austere, solemn building, conceived like an ancient temple.
It was begun around 1460, about ten years before the Basilica of Sant'Andrea, Alberti's other great project in the city; like almost all his works, it was completed by Luca Fancelli. It was consecrated only in 1529.
The highlight is the upper part of the façade, the only part that remains as it was: a classical temple freely reworked, with a broken entablature, a pediment and an arch resting on its ends. Alberti may have drawn on a late antique work such as the Arch of Orange.
The building stands on two levels. The lower one, half below ground, recalls the podium of Roman temples; above it opens the church proper, on a Greek cross plan: an almost cubic central space, covered by a cross vault, from which three equal apsed arms branch out. You climb to the church by the two side flights of stairs.
This central plan, solemn and bare, became a point of reference for Renaissance architects reflecting on Greek-cross buildings.
Today's façade is partly a 20th-century invention. The restoration completed in 1926, judged arbitrary, separated the church from the convent that adjoined it on the right, added the two side staircases and turned two windows into doorways.
The five openings of the portico also date from those works. To picture the original appearance, a medal by Giovanni Lanfredini helps: it shows the façade before the changes.
In this area, just outside the walls and towards the marshes of the Te, the Gonzagas kept the stables of their famous horses, the pride of the dynasty. Today Alberti's temple is where Mantua honours those who died for their country.
It was begun around 1460, about ten years before the Basilica of Sant'Andrea, Alberti's other great project in the city; like almost all his works, it was completed by Luca Fancelli. It was consecrated only in 1529.
The highlight is the upper part of the façade, the only part that remains as it was: a classical temple freely reworked, with a broken entablature, a pediment and an arch resting on its ends. Alberti may have drawn on a late antique work such as the Arch of Orange.
The building stands on two levels. The lower one, half below ground, recalls the podium of Roman temples; above it opens the church proper, on a Greek cross plan: an almost cubic central space, covered by a cross vault, from which three equal apsed arms branch out. You climb to the church by the two side flights of stairs.
This central plan, solemn and bare, became a point of reference for Renaissance architects reflecting on Greek-cross buildings.
Today's façade is partly a 20th-century invention. The restoration completed in 1926, judged arbitrary, separated the church from the convent that adjoined it on the right, added the two side staircases and turned two windows into doorways.
The five openings of the portico also date from those works. To picture the original appearance, a medal by Giovanni Lanfredini helps: it shows the façade before the changes.
In this area, just outside the walls and towards the marshes of the Te, the Gonzagas kept the stables of their famous horses, the pride of the dynasty. Today Alberti's temple is where Mantua honours those who died for their country.