Grand Tour
5264 San Prospero a Reggio Emilia
Edited by Graziella Buccellati. Texts by Stefano Maccarini, Angelo Mazza, Pier Luigi Bagatin, Yves Hersant
1997 / 72 PAGES.
Language: Italian
The story of San Prospero, bishop and protector of Reggio Emilia, dwells within the city’s basilica in its frescoes and paintings, protected by the walls of a true Emilian architectural gem.
San Prospero da Reggio is hardly one of the better-known saints. Though discreet, vague and on the margins of the Church and culture, he does have the merit of being worshipped by the faithful as the embodiment of his own aspirations. For this reason, the basilica dedicated to him has rivalled the cathedral for centuries with its frescoes and exquisite obects and décor. The best-known names in 16th-century Emilian painting (Correggio, Annibale Carracci and Guido Reni) were called on to create paintings and frescoes for the basilica, extolled in these pages not only for its great artistic and architectural value but also and especially as a whole community’s site of memory.