Province Province of Bologna | ||
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Address Via Parigi, 1, 40121 Bologna, Italy Similar Museo di San Colomba, Museo della sanità e dell'assi, San Giorgio in Poggiale, Museo internazionale e bibliote, Bologna Cathedral | ||
The Oratory of the Madonna of San Colombano is a religious site in central Bologna, found on Via Parigi, near the Bologna Cathedral.
The oratory was built in 1591, atop the site of a chapel or small church that sheltered the painting of the Madonna dell’Orazione by Lippo di Dalmasio. The church, called San Colombano, at the site had been founded in the 7th century by Peter I, the bishop of Bologna and pupil of the Irish monk Columbanus. Columbanus had died in nearby Bobbio.
The oratory was decorated starting about the year 1600, by an impressive series of pupils of Ludovico Carracci, among them some of the titans of early Italian Baroque painting: Francesco Albani, Lucio Massari, Domenichino, Francesco Brizio, Guido Reni, and Baldassare Aloisi (il Balanino). The subjects of the frescoes are stories of the Passion and Resurrection of Christ.
The property now belongs to the Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio in Bologna, and is being restored. Restorations have uncovered earlier 13th-century frescoes.
The attached complex of buildings, since 2010, houses the collection of musical instruments donated by Luigi Ferdinando Tagliavini, consisting of nearly ninety pieces including clavicembali, spinette, pianoforti, clavicord and others. It also houses the musical library of Oscar Mischiati.