Santuario delle Sante loveresi

Two women who founded the Sisters of Charity in Lovere in 1832 lie buried here, in a pink-granite church raised for them beside the house where Bartolomea Capitanio died. Consecrated in 1938 and decorated inside with mosaics and frescoes, the sanctuary is an artistic ensemble and a place of pilgrimage.

Why it matters

The sanctuary honours Bartolomea Capitanio (1807–1833) and Vincenza Gerosa (1784–1847), who established the Institute of the Sisters of Charity in 1832, inspired by Saint Vincent de Paul and rooted in the social Catholicism of nineteenth-century Lombardy; both were canonised by Pius XII in 1950. Their relics rest in the sanctuary’s side apses, and the new church was arranged to connect with the historic room where Capitanio died. The sanctuary is a major religious monument of modern Lovere, with an integrated programme of sacred art from the interwar period.

What to notice

The exterior combines pink granite and a slender bell tower. Mosaics on the porticoed staircases, made by the Vatican school from cartoons by Pasquale Arzuffi, depict the Raising of the Widow of Nain’s Son and the Sermon on the Mount; bronze parapets with the evangelists’ symbols follow models by sculptor Giovanni Manzoni. The square interior contains a Greek cross with three naves, supported by four columns. Pointed arches and cross vaults carry mosaics of the Ten Virgins, a central theme in the building’s iconography. Umberto Marigliani and Giuseppe Grimani painted the Corteo di vergini e martiri along the nave walls. The early Christian theme culminates in the apse, where Christ, King of Virgins, crowns the two saints. Above the entrance is a cycle of the Works of Mercy; Arzuffi’s memorial murals depict the deaths of the two founders on the arches above the matronei. The fourteen Via Crucis stations are also by Marigliani. Stained glass by Costantino Grondona and Cesare Giuliani depicts patron saints associated with the Congregation. The high altar has Manzoni’s Deposition relief. The 1835 chapel of Casa Gaia received Capitanio’s remains in 1843 and Gerosa’s in 1858, and now forms the atrium connecting the old institute to the church.

Context and history

After Capitanio's beatification in 1926, the Congregation resolved to build a church worthy of her tomb, beside Casa Gaia, the house that had been the Institute's first seat. The first stone was laid on 1 July 1931. The designer was Monsignor Spirito Maria Chiappetta (1868–1948), a priest-engineer whom Pius XI called to Rome to direct the office for the design of parish houses and who became president of the Central Pontifical Commission for Sacred Art in Italy in 1929; the building follows a neo-medieval, Lombard Gothic taste. The bishop of Brescia, Giacinto Tredici, consecrated the church on 1 October 1938 with the dedication to Christ, King of Virgins, in honour of the founders. The structure was grafted onto the old institute building so that Capitanio's death room looks into the temple, while the earlier chapel, decorated by Luigi Morgari and the stuccoist Luigi Sacchi, was adapted as the atrium. Painting and mosaic decoration came from the school of Fermo Taragni, with works also linked to the Pavoniano Artigianelli institute of Monza.