The Cemetery of the Certosa in Bologna, one of the most significant monumental complexes in Europe, was established in 1801 at the monastery of the Certosa of Saint Jerome of Casara, suppressed in 1797. This building, outside the city walls and in a peripheral area as prescribed by the hermitic vocation of the order, was founded in 1334 thanks to a legacy from the jurist Giovanni d’Andrea; in 1359 the church was consecrated, enriched over time by commissions from the Carthusians. Many valuable works of art decorated it, such as the polyptych by Antonio and Bartolomeo Vivarini dedicated to Blessed Nicolò Albergati, which was transferred during the Napoleonic era to the National Art Gallery of Bologna, along with paintings by Guercino and Ludovico and Agostino Carracci. Large altarpieces by Bartolomeo Cesi, Giovanni Andrea and Elisabetta Sirani, Lorenzo Pasinelli, Domenico Maria Canuti, Giovanni Maria Galli Bibiena, and the Neapolitan Nunzio Rossi remain in their original placement. The intarsia choir by Biagio de’ Marchi (1538) is noteworthy. In the first decade of the 17th century, Tommaso Martelli designed the main bell tower, while in 1768 Gian Giacomo Dotti drew the monumental entrance of the monastery, the primary house of the entire Order from 1792. In 1869, the discovery of an important Etruscan necropolis at the same site made a strong impression, identified by Antonio Zannoni: 417 tombs from which materials were collected in the Etruscan section of the Civic Archaeological Museum of Bologna, a key reference for the study of a chronological period known as the “Certosa phase.” The first phase of restoring the monastery rooms used as a cemetery according to the principles of Enlightenment hygienism is documented by a series of drawings by architect Angelo Venturoli, who, together with Luigi Marchesini, planned the reuse of existing spaces. In 1802, Ercole Gasparini designed the monumental entrance from which the straight avenue leading to the Chapel of Suffrage (1811) departs, and promoted the construction of a portico connected to that of San Luca. The use of spaces for sepulchral purposes proceeded from the Third Cloister to the entrance Cloister and the halls of the Pietà and the Tombs. Among the most scenic places of this site, defined as a “Cemetery that can be called a Museum” by Aleksandr Turgenev and visited by Byron and Leopardi, stands out in particular the Loggia of the Tombs (1833), reworked by Coriolano Monti, and the Aula Gemina, dominated centrally by the monument to the agronomist Giovanni Francesco Contri (Salvino Salvini, 1873). Already in the early 19th century, tombs commissioned by the Bolognese aristocracy to the most important sculptors of the era had arisen: notable monuments include Acquisti (Luigi Acquisti, 1823), Angelelli (Lorenzo Bartolini, 1827), Murat Pepoli (Vincenzo Vela, 1864), Baruzzi (Cincinnato Baruzzi, 1878), Bisteghi (Enrico Barberi, 1891). Many tombs were decorated with frescoes by prestigious painters such as Pietro Fancelli, Flaminio Minozzi, Filippo Pedrini, Antonio Basoli, Pelagio Palagi. Solid frescoes depicting the Virgin, coming from other religious buildings, were transferred to the “Madonne” cloister. Among 20th-century monuments, the monument to the Fallen of the First World War stands at the center of the sixth cloister (Ercole Drei). Attached to the cemetery are areas for the Non-Catholics (1822), the Jewish cemetery (1869), the crematorium altar and the columbarium (1888). Famous burials include those of Carlo Broschi known as Farinelli, Isabella Colbrtan, wife of Rossigni, Gioacchino Napoleone Pepoli, Giuseppe Grabinski, Giosuè Carducci, Marco Minghetti, Enrico Panzacchi, Riccardo Bacchelli, Ottorino Respighi, Giorgio Moranti, Giovanni Cappellini and other notable figures. In 2008, the Pantheon at Certosa, a space intended for secular rites, was enriched and renewed with the installation “Waiting Room” by the artist Flavio Favelli, who did not alter the existing space but redesigned it through some careful adjustments. The new black and white marble flooring rests on wooden panels to avoid damaging the original; the walls are adorned with curtains that leave the ivory-colored columns uncovered; opposite the entrance is a large mirror, and the room is illuminated by 25 crystal chandeliers. The space is completed on the sides by wooden benches arranged in an amphitheater style, and centrally there is the stage, consisting of a wooden floor, suitable for hosting the coffin.
Information about Monumental Certosa
Via della Certosa, 18,
40121 Bologna (Bologna)
051 204 640, 051 615 086 8
nuovimusei@comune.bologna.it
Source: MIBACT
