| |
SANTA COLOMBA'S CHURCH
Home
>
Monuments >
Monuments Rimini >
Santa Colomba's Church
MONUMENTS PROVINCE OF RIMINI
MONUMENTS RIMINI
Santa
Colomba’s Church
Santa Colomba’s Church, of which today remains only the bell tower, and
which till 1798 has been the cathedral of the city of Rimini, stood in
ancient times in Piazza Malatesta,
that
is, Malatesta
Square.
The Church, whose original early Christian structures date back to the
fifth century, as a mosaic inscription collected in the Corpus of the
Latin inscriptions (CIL, XI, 551) attests, was originally consecrated
to the Holy Spirit. Only since the VII century it has been consecrated to
Santa Colomba, a noble maid native of Gaul, who received the palm of
martyrdom during the principate of Aurelianus (270-275). It is not attested
by which way arrived in Rimini the worship of Santa Colomba, already cited
in two Greek inscriptions, which were under the mediaeval cathedral’s high
altar, dating back to the V-VII centuries. It can be supposed that the
worship spread after the arrival in the city of Rimini of her relics. The
Cathedral was certainly transferred from a Church, that the Scholars are not
at the present moment able to identify, to Santa Colomba’s Church, as the
historical sources confirm, long time before 1015. In the Middle Ages the
Cathedral of Santa Colomba, whose structure resembled the structure of the
basilicas of Ravenna, preserved under the high altar not only the two Greek
inscriptions above-mentioned, but also Felicita, Peregrinus, Facondinus and
Ioventinus’ sarcophagi, dating back to the VII-VIII centuries, which at
present are in the Cella delle Reliquie (Cell of the Relics) in Malatesta’s
Temple. Noteworthy is also the sarcophagus of the III century, reutilized
for the duke Martino in the XI century. The cathedral’s lot was, in fact,
the burial-place of Riminesi dukes and bishops. Two small marble pillars
discovered in the cathedral’s area, are, finally, worth a mention. The
pillars are, in fact, of great artistic and historical value, since they are
a work of art of Agapitos, the only medieval artist known in the city of
Rimini.
|
|