Earlier this week, I posted Nicola’s photographs of the tomb of St Syrus, the first bishop of Pavia, a small town in northern Italy, located about 22 south of Milan; another one of the city’s churches, San Pietro in Ciel d’Oro, houses the relics of St Augustine and St Severinus, better known as the philosopher Boethius. A very late tradition has it that Syrus was the boy who offered to Our Lord the loaves and fishes which He multiplied, as recounted in the Gospel of St John, 6, 1-15. His tomb is located within the cathedral of Pavia, which is dedicated jointly to St Stephen the First-martyr and to the Assumption. This joint dedication arises from the fact that like Milan, Pavia originally had two separate cathedrals with these two separate titles, the larger of which, St Stephen, was used in the summer, and the smaller, St Mary, in the winter. In Milan, however, the two cathedral were completely separated from each other, and faced each other across a large open space, with a baptistery between them, whereas at Pavia, they stood next to each other, and were not wholly separated from each other internally.
The current single building results from a project to rebuild them as a single structure which began in the late 15th century, and is still technically not completed; the walls are solid, and the building functions, but the marble revetements that should have covered the exposed brickwork seen here has never been done. Construction was repeatedly halted not only because of the expense involved in procuring marble from a distance, since there is little to be had in the area, but also because of significant structural problems. The cupola, such as it stands, was not finished until 1882-85, the façade, still without revetement, in 1895-98, and the last phase, the two arms of the transept, in 1930-33.
The back of the apse and the belltower.
Even in its incomplete state, the building is impressively in its size. At nearly 320 feet externally (302 internally), the dome is the fourth highest in Italy, after those of St Peter’s basilica, the Pantheon, and the duomo of Florence.
The choir area behind the altar was the first part of the new cathedral to be completed, and for a long time, the only really usable part of it, to the point where serious thought was given to abandoning the project and returning to the use of the still-standing part of the old building.
The cathedral possesses three thorns from the Crown of Thorns; the large baroque “machina” in the central apse has the tabernacle in which they are kept, and a large balcony for the occasions on which they are brought out for the veneration of the faithful.
To the right of the high altar is the chapel of St Alessandro Sauli (1534-92), a priest of the Order Clerk Regular of St Paul (popularly known as the Barnabites), who served as bishop of Pavia for the last year and a half of his life. He had previously been a well-known preacher and philosophy professor, and the confessor of St Charles Borromeo; before his transfer to Pavia, he was bishop of Aleria on the island of Corsica for over 20 years.
His original grave marker.
The right transept chapel, and the altar of St Syrus.
The left transept chapel, with a marble altar specially dedicated to the celebration of Masses for the dead.
The central body, like many other Renaissance era projects, is much brighter in the upper part than the lower, representing the union of heaven and earth in the Church. And in point of an interesting fact, the original architect of this church in the late 15th century, Donatello Bramante (1444-1514), would later begin the rebuilding of the basilica of St Peter in the Vatican, where this idea was brought to its culmination.
A good view of the huge pulpit.
The altar of the chapel of the Holy Rosary.
The epitaph of Giovanni Battista Sfondrati, bishop of Pavia from 1642-47, and a relative of Pope Gregory XIV.
A chapel added to the church by him in honor of his patron Saint.
The relics of St Crispinus, bishop of Pavia in the mid-5th century.
St Damian, bishop in the later 7th century.
Various relics in another altar, including two more Sainted bishops of the city, Armentarius and Epiphnius.
