Oratorio della Misericordia

Facing the Cittadella on Piazza Firmafede, the Oratory of the Misericordia was built for the brotherhood whose black-caped members comforted the dying and buried the dead of Sarzana. Rebuilt in the sixteenth century over earlier remains, it became the seat of the Diocesan Museum in 2003, and its eighteenth-century face is now the museum's own front.

Why it matters

The oratory reflects Sarzana's civic and religious history. The Diocesan Museum's official history records that the Confraternita della Misericordia, known as dei Neri for their black capes, was instituted in the city on 1 April 1578 to assist the poor, prisoners and the sick, and that from 1584 the oratory became its seat; the confratelli, called incappucciati, attended the ill, consoled the dying and carried the dead to burial. The brotherhood was established to create a monte della pietà e della misericordia, following an initiative by the Capuchin preacher Evangelista da Genova and formalized before notary Zaccaria de' Medici. Later, the Misericordia merged with the confraternity of the Olmo; its charitable legacy continues in the Pubblica Assistenza.

What to notice

The building combines earlier masonry with an eighteenth-century facade:

• The side walls contain masonry dated to the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, suggesting an earlier building stood here.
• The eighteenth-century facade has a Doric portal, protruding tympanum, Ionic pilasters and a frescoed lunette above a marble portal flanked by two small columns.
• Inside, a rectangular hall beneath a barrel vault ends in a matching apse. Two altars are set into the wall thickness: the left is dedicated to the Madonna del Rosario, the right to the Beata Vergine del Suffragio.
• Since 2003, the hall and annexes have housed the Diocesan Museum, with six exhibition rooms on the ground floor and two above in the former custodian's house.

Context and history

An apostolic visitor on 2 April 1584 found restoration materials ready at the church. Pastoral visits to the Misericordia outnumbered those to any other oratory in the city. Its processional calendar centred on Corpus Domini and the feast of St Mark. The Diocese of La Spezia-Sarzana-Brugnato established its museum in the oratory in 2003. The collection includes silver, paintings and processional objects associated with the religious heritage of the area.