Finale Emilia (Modena), the Cathedral reopens, just restored after the 2012 earthquake

Reopens for worship, with a great popular celebration, the Cathedral of Finale Emilia in the lower Modena plain.

The church, which he had reported severe damage due to the 2012 earthquake, come back accessible to the faithful and to the community after reconstruction and careful restoration, conducted thanks to the Region's programming funds, through the commissioner structure, with the Program of public works and cultural heritage: resources allocated for over 6 million euros.

Today, Sunday 26 May, in the afternoon, after the presentation of the works, the solemn mass presided over by the Metropolitan Abbot Archbishop of Modena-Nonantola, Erio Castellucci.

When the church reopens, dedicated to Saints Philip and James, the Presidency and other representatives of the Emilia-Romagna Region will be present together with the civil authorities.

Damages and interventions

The restoration works with seismic improvement they began in the spring of 2019 and concluded in recent weeks.

The earthquake hit the architectural structure of the Cathedral, the decorative pictorial apparatus and the internal artistic works, such as the altars and the wooden choir loft. From the most obvious damage was the collapse of part of the facade and wooden vault behind e plaster of the central nave, with masonry vaults of the side naves, e extensive cracks on the vault of the apse and along the entire shaft of the bell tower.

Among the interventions performed, the realization of a metal frame in the belfry and the fibre cross-linking along the entire shaft which, together with the new wooden staircase and the insertion of the new scaffolding, reduces the possibility of the bell tower itself being expelled due to compression crushing. Inside the apse a has been studied intervention involving glass fiber reinforcement elements above the external ribs of the structure and a steel curb along the perimeter.

The history of the Cathedral

The first church, 'ancestor' of the current Cathedral, it was built already in the 13th century, as part of the foundation of the new fortified center of Finale.

The characteristics of this first place of worship are not known, but certainly, since its construction, it took the form of the church of the Finale community, who also took care of the officiating costs by paying a chaplain.

The known history of the Duomo begins between the end of the 400s and the beginning of the 500s, when the original building was renovated, enlarged and raised, with a rectangular hall with three naves, a semicircular apse and a trussed roof.

The interior of the Cathedral dates back to the works of the years 1770 – 1773, with a baroque style design, work of the Ferrarese architect Angelo Marescotti: on that occasion the central nave was covered with a barrel vault with lunettes. The façade dates back to 1807 and was built thanks to the legacy of the archpriest Giovan Battista Grillenzoni.

Until 2002 the Cathedral remained municipal property and only then – with an official act – it was handed over to the parish.

A treasure chest of art

On the occasion of the reopening of the Cathedral, is back in Finale Emilia the precious painting depicting it “The Madonna, Child and San Lorenzo” the Guercino created it in 1624 for the church of Sant'Agostino (current seminary church).

After the earthquake the large canvas it was transported to the Diocesan and Benedictine Museum of Nonantola, where it has been kept in recent years. Thanks to the funds coming from the 8 per thousand to the Church Catholic, lThe work has also been carefully restored.

The painting is characterized by the intense mystical dialogue, a wonderful exchange of glances and postures: with the restoration, the lapis lazuli blue of the Madonna's mantle and the red of San Lorenzo's dalmatic have acquired new brilliance.

For the obvious needs of protection and custody and with the authorization of the Superintendency, Guercino's masterpiece, upon returning to Finale, it was placed in the Cathedral, on one of the two sides of the presbytery. Inside there are valuable works of art, including the Baptism of Christ by Sebastiano Filippi called Bastianino, dating back to around 1580, the Adoration of the Magi by Giuseppe Maria Crespi (about 1730), the Marriage of Mary, seventeenth-century oil on canvas by Sigismondo Caula. On the main altar, the canvas with Saints Philip and James (to which the parish and the church are named), a work by the Modenese Giovanni Mussati, dating back to 1772, the wooden crucifix (one meter 86 centimeters high) of fifteenth-century execution which, according to tradition, arrived in Finale dragged by the flood waters of the Panaro river.

It was the venerated image of the Blessed Virgin of Graces was also restored: the statue of the Madonna, made of wood in the round, dates back to 1603 and took on its name in 1631, after the plague epidemic which partly spared the town.

The cycle of frescoes in the central nave it was made by the artist Giuseppe Busuoli from Finale in 1942-43.

The organ and the bells

It has been completely restored even the prized organ which was built in 1911 from the Mascioni organ builders of Azzio (Varese) who also took care of its recovery with the help of the original construction drawings. Thethe organ, entirely with tubular pneumatic transmission, is located in the choir loft above the main entrance and enclosed in a wooden case.

The reopening of the Cathedral is also the opportunity to officially inaugurate the new concert of nine bells. at four bells which were installed after World War II (the previous bells had been requisitioned to use bronze for weapons production) five were added, made at the Capanni foundry in Castelnovo ne' Monti (Reggio Emilia).

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