Chiesa del Corpus Domini

Bologna's Corpus Domini, also called the Church of the Saint, preserves the seated body of Caterina de' Vigri, the fifteenth-century nun who established the city's first Poor Clares convent here. Its Renaissance façade remains outside a Baroque interior decorated with paintings and frescoes.

Why it matters

The church is both a sanctuary and a record of Bologna's religious and artistic history. Caterina's body is preserved in a chapel dedicated to her, and the church also contains works by artists of the Bolognese school and the tombs of physicist Luigi Galvani and scientist Laura Bassi.

What to notice

The surviving Renaissance façade dates to the church built between 1477 and 1480 by Nicolò Marchionne da Firenze and Francesco Fucci da Doccia. Inside, the Baroque remodelling of the late seventeenth century is visible in the painted vaults by Marc'Antonio Franceschini, Luigi Quaini and Enrico Haffner, and in the chapels' paintings. The chapel of Saint Catherine leads to the Museo della Santa, which preserves her manuscripts and paintings. A small round window beside the high altar connects the nave visually with the chapel.

Context and history

The sanctuary developed from the older convent of San Cristoforo delle Muratelle. In 1456, Cardinal Bessarion granted Caterina dei Vigri use of the convent, which became Bologna's first Poor Clares house. The church was rebuilt on a Baroque plan completed in 1688 under Giacomo Monti, with sculptor Giuseppe Mazza. The body of Caterina, canonized in 1712, became the focus of devotion. The chapel museum was conceived by Cardinal Giorgio Gusmini and inaugurated in 1919. Bombing during the Second World War damaged the church and convent, which were rebuilt following the earlier model.