Description
The Rotonda di San Lorenzo is one of the oldest churches in Mantua: a small, circular Romanesque building from the 11th century, sitting a metre and a half below the level of Piazza delle Erbe, right in the centre.
Outside, ten half-columns mark the rhythm of the curved wall. Inside, another ten columns separate the central space from an ambulatory with cross vaults: two of them, towards the apse, are marble, the others brick, and one even dates from Roman times.
Above runs a gallery that looks onto the nave through ten openings. Up there, fragments of 11th- and 12th-century frescoes survive, including a haloed figure and five angels: a rare example of Lombard Romanesque painting in the Byzantine taste.
In the apse is a St Lawrence painted in the 14th century, attributed to a painter from Verona. The dome, on the other hand, is a 20th-century addition, inspired by the rotunda of San Tomè at Almenno San Bartolomeo.
Tradition has it that Matilda of Tuscany had it built in 1082, in imitation of the rotunda of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. In this way it was symbolically linked to the Blood of Christ venerated in the nearby Basilica of Sant'Andrea.
A date, 1083, is written on 15th-century plaster, but Matilda's involvement is not certain. The lower level of the square and some stone elements suggest that it was built reusing a 4th-century Roman building, perhaps a temple or a tomb.
The Canossa family had their palace in Mantua, between today's Piazza Broletto and Piazza delle Erbe. It is said that Matilda's father, Boniface, kept a lion chained in front of the entrance as a sign of power. Some believe the rotunda was that palace's chapel.
In 1579 Duke Guglielmo Gonzaga had it closed to worship. It became a storehouse and then, roofless, a private courtyard on the edge of the Jewish ghetto, hidden among the houses: in old photos of the square you cannot see it.
In 1908 the building was expropriated and its demolition authorised, but during the works the rotunda re-emerged almost intact, freed from the buildings that covered it. Restored and topped with the new dome, it became a church again in 1926; the staircase leading down from the square was opened in 1940.
Don't miss
• The ambulatory with its ten columns.
• The Romanesque frescoes in the gallery.
• The St Lawrence in the apse.
Did you know?
• The number ten crops up everywhere: ten half-columns outside, ten columns inside, ten openings in the gallery.
• Leon Battista Alberti and Giulio Romano also drew up plans to transform it, but their projects never left the drawing board.
Outside, ten half-columns mark the rhythm of the curved wall. Inside, another ten columns separate the central space from an ambulatory with cross vaults: two of them, towards the apse, are marble, the others brick, and one even dates from Roman times.
Above runs a gallery that looks onto the nave through ten openings. Up there, fragments of 11th- and 12th-century frescoes survive, including a haloed figure and five angels: a rare example of Lombard Romanesque painting in the Byzantine taste.
In the apse is a St Lawrence painted in the 14th century, attributed to a painter from Verona. The dome, on the other hand, is a 20th-century addition, inspired by the rotunda of San Tomè at Almenno San Bartolomeo.
Tradition has it that Matilda of Tuscany had it built in 1082, in imitation of the rotunda of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. In this way it was symbolically linked to the Blood of Christ venerated in the nearby Basilica of Sant'Andrea.
A date, 1083, is written on 15th-century plaster, but Matilda's involvement is not certain. The lower level of the square and some stone elements suggest that it was built reusing a 4th-century Roman building, perhaps a temple or a tomb.
The Canossa family had their palace in Mantua, between today's Piazza Broletto and Piazza delle Erbe. It is said that Matilda's father, Boniface, kept a lion chained in front of the entrance as a sign of power. Some believe the rotunda was that palace's chapel.
In 1579 Duke Guglielmo Gonzaga had it closed to worship. It became a storehouse and then, roofless, a private courtyard on the edge of the Jewish ghetto, hidden among the houses: in old photos of the square you cannot see it.
In 1908 the building was expropriated and its demolition authorised, but during the works the rotunda re-emerged almost intact, freed from the buildings that covered it. Restored and topped with the new dome, it became a church again in 1926; the staircase leading down from the square was opened in 1940.
Don't miss
• The ambulatory with its ten columns.
• The Romanesque frescoes in the gallery.
• The St Lawrence in the apse.
Did you know?
• The number ten crops up everywhere: ten half-columns outside, ten columns inside, ten openings in the gallery.
• Leon Battista Alberti and Giulio Romano also drew up plans to transform it, but their projects never left the drawing board.