st. petronius

Doesn’t this church look surprised?

The Basilica of San Petronio is a minor basilica and church of the Archdiocese of Bologna located in Bologna, Emilia Romagna, northern Italy. It dominates Piazza Maggiore. The basilica is dedicated to the patron saint of the city, Saint Petronius, who was the bishop of Bologna in the fifth century. The basilica is a large church measuring 132 metres long, 66 metres wide, and 47 metres tall, and is described as the “most imposing” church in Bologna

Look at the protruding bricks. The facade was designed by Domenico da Varignana and started in 1538 by Giacomo Ranuzzi. However, it remains unfinished.

The nave contains twenty-two side chapels

Keep traffic off the meridian line

The church hosts also a marking in the form of a meridian line inlaid in the paving of the left aisle in 1655; it was calculated and designed by the astronomer Giovanni Domenico Cassini, who was teaching astronomy at the University ( = founded in 1088, the oldest university in continuous operation in the world, and the first degree-awarding institution of higher learning). A meridian line does not indicate the time: instead, with its length of 66.8 metres (219 ft) it is one of the largest astronomical instruments in the world, allowing measurements that were for the time uniquely precise. The sun light, entering through a 27.07 mm (1.066 in) hole placed at a 27.07 m (88.8 ft) height in the church wall, projects an elliptical image of the sun, which at local noon falls exactly on the meridian line and every day is different as to position and size. The position of the projected image along the line allows to determine accurately the daily altitude of the sun at noon, from which Cassini was able to calculate with unprecedented precision astronomical parameters such as the obliquity of the ecliptic, the duration of the tropical year and the timing of equinoxes and solstices. On the other hand, the size of the projected sun’s image, and in particular its rate of variation during the year, allowed Cassini the first experimental verification of Kepler’s laws of planetary motion. (Source: Wikipedia)

This last photo is from Wikipedia:

Terror threat

In 2002 five men were arrested on suspicions of planning to blow up the basilica. The men were allegedly connected to Al Qaeda. Again in 2006, plans by Islamist terrorists to destroy the Basilica were thwarted by Italian police. The terrorists planned to destroy the church because one of the chapels features a 15th-century fresco, painted by Giovanni da Modena and based on Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy, depicting Muhammad in the eighth circle of Hell, in a section reserved for religious schismatics, being tortured and devoured by demons.

Late Gothic fresco in San Petronio Basilica, depicting Mohammed being tortured in Hell.

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