Basilica di San Prospero

The Basilica of San Prospero honours Reggio Emilia's patron saint. Local tradition credits a providential fog with hiding the city from Attila's Huns, a story also told in Modena about its own patron. Six red-marble lions stand on the parvis, while the saint's relics rest beneath the high altar.

Why it matters

The church's history reaches back to an abbey outside Reggio's medieval walls. After its demolition during the sixteenth-century fortification works, the saint's relics were transferred to the present basilica. Rebuilt between 1514 and 1523 by Luca Corti and Matteo Fiorentini, the church later received its Baroque façade and decoration. The surrounding piazza, porticoed on three sides, retains the urban setting of the city's patronal church.

What to notice

Giovan Battista Cattani designed the façade, built between 1748 and 1753, with niches and eleven statues of saints and Doctors of the Church by Angelo Finali. The six lions of red Verona marble stand around the parvis; their bases are attributed to Gaspare Bigi, and one includes a profile of Girolamo Pratonieri, patron of the reconstruction.

The basilica has a Latin-cross plan with three naves. Its dome was frescoed in 1885 with San Prospero in glory, and the apse carries Camillo Procaccini's Last Judgment cycle (1585–1587), with contributions by Bernardino Campi and Giovan Battista Tinti. The wooden choir, made by the De Venetiis brothers in 1545–1546, contains intarsia of landscapes, still lifes and city views. A copy of Correggio's La Notte marks the chapel from which the original was removed; it is now in Dresden.

Context and history

The basilica combines Renaissance and Baroque phases. The 1514–1523 rebuilding established the church's early-sixteenth-century form; later works included the Assumption altarpiece of 1602, created by Tommaso Laureti and Ludovico Carracci, and paintings by Alessandro Tiarini.

The octagonal bell tower was begun in the mid-1530s to a design by Cristoforo Ricci. Giulio Romano approved the project in 1538, and construction continued through 1570. Prospero Sogari completed the third order in 1555; the planned upper stages were never built. The sandstone tower remains an unfinished but distinctive part of Reggio Emilia's skyline.