Reveal.World logo
Reveal

Chiesa di Santa Maria Maddalena Pesaro - Church of Saint Mary Magdalene in Pesaro, Italy

Piazza del Monte, 7, 61121 Pesaro PU, Italy

Great Architects: Antonio Rinaldi
photo
Jermaine
The church was annexed to the demolished Benedictine monastery that once stood on what is now Piazza del Monte; consecrated in 1325, the complex originated in the 13th century. In 1553, the church became the Sforza family mausoleum, where the family’s remains were transferred from the Church of San Giovanni Battista. The current decoration is the result of a complete reconstruction of the church and monastery in the eighteenth century: the church’s design was signed in 1740 by Luigi Vanvitelli, a renowned architect of the Papal States and the author of the Royal Palace of Caserta. The reconstruction of the Church of Saint Mary Magdalene, entrusted by Vanvitelli to his pupil Antonio Rinaldi, was completed in 1745.
After the unification of Italy, with the transfer of church property to the state, the church was left unattended, and several works that adorned it were removed, including three altarpieces by the Pesaro artist Giannandrea Lazarini. The facade, unfinished at the top, is concave.
As in many other buildings, the material used is terracotta, alternating with white Istrian stone on the portal. The interior is decorated with stucco sculptures and bas-reliefs by Giuseppe Mazza, a Bolognese artist working in Pesaro, who also worked in the Church of Santissima Annunziata.
In 1995, restoration was carried out by architect Selio Fransioni, who authorized the use of the space as a venue for cultural events; as a result, Lazarini’s paintings were returned to their original place.

Sources:
http://www.comune.pesaro.pu.it/cultura/teatri-e-arene/teatri/chiesa-di-santa-maria-maddalena/
photo
Jermaine

Follow us on social media

More stories from Great Architects: Antonio Rinaldi

Entrance Honor Gates

Museum-Reserve "Oranienbaum", Saint Petersburg, Russia, 198412

Imperial Parks of Oranienbaum and Surroundings
Great Architects: Antonio Rinaldi
The gates of Peter III's toy fortress on the territory of Oranienbaum are a characteristic example of small-scale architecture. They served as the entrance to a miniature training ground built for the young heir to the throne. Here, the future emperor studied military science in a recreated setting of a fortification. The entire complex occupied an area of 2 hectares.
photo
Jermaine

Cavalry Corps

WP5W+XJ Petrodvortsovy District, Saint Petersburg, Russia

Imperial Parks of Oranienbaum and Surroundings
Great Architects: Antonio Rinaldi
Former kitchen building of the Chinese Palace. In 1808, the central part was reconstructed into a hospital, which existed until 1842. It was named the Courtyard Building, and later the Cavalry Building, as in the second half of the 19th century it housed apartments for palace servants.
photo
Jermaine

Chinese cuisine

WP5V+MR Petrodvortsovy District, Saint Petersburg, Russia

Imperial Parks of Oranienbaum and Surroundings
Great Architects: Antonio Rinaldi
Chinese cuisine – a small one-story, with a mezzanine floor, cruciform pavilion. The pavilion is crowned with a wide, sprawling dome.
photo
Jermaine

Chinese Palace

Verkhny Park, 7, Saint Petersburg, Russia, 198412

Imperial Parks of Oranienbaum and Surroundings
Great Architects: Antonio Rinaldi
Striving to avoid participating in her husband's rough soldierly games, Catherine, still a Grand Duchess, erected on the opposite bank of Karosta, according to the same Rinaldi's design, a picturesque ensemble of the Private Dacha with the architectural masterpiece of the Chinese Palace at its center. The Chinese Palace became the favorite place of solitary retreat for the future Empress Catherine II during her "straw widowhood," at a time when her husband was throwing noisy orgies among her young and undemanding ladies-in-waiting. Here she tried to overcome the forced boredom in the narrow circle of faithful and devoted friends. Perhaps that is why there was a legend in St. Petersburg that Catherine embroidered the panels for the Beaded Cabinet of the Chinese Palace with her own hands during the long hours of enforced solitude. It is said that the shadow of the Empress still occasionally visits the Chinese Palace and wanders through its enfilades.
photo
Jermaine

Chinese Pond

WP5V+P5 Petrodvortsovy District, Saint Petersburg, Russia

Imperial Parks of Oranienbaum and Surroundings
Great Architects: Antonio Rinaldi
In the southwest of the Oranienbaum museum-reserve, Antonio Rinaldi created a beautiful ensemble, with the central role given to the Chinese Pond. Like the Lower Pond, it is not natural but man-made, created somewhat later than the Lower Pond during the reorganization of the estate by the architect Antonio Rinaldi. The pond's name comes from its location – near the Chinese Palace.
photo
Jermaine

Petersstadt and the Palace of Peter III

Ilikovsky Ave., 18A, Saint Petersburg, Russia, 198412

Imperial Parks of Oranienbaum and Surroundings
Great Architects: Antonio Rinaldi
The Petersstadt fortress ensemble was created between 1758 and 1762. On the right bank of the Karasta River was a mock fortress for Grand Duke Peter Fedorovich, the future Emperor Peter III.
photo
Jermaine

So are the slides Russian or American after all? Pavilion "Sliding Hill"

Krasnoflotskoye Highway, 6, Saint Petersburg, Russia, 198412

Imperial Parks of Oranienbaum and Surroundings
Great Architects: Antonio Rinaldi
One of the most popular attractions in amusement parks is known worldwide by different names. In Russia, it is called "американские горки" (American mountains), in France — *les montagnes russes* ("Russian mountains"), and in the USA — roller coaster or Russian mountains. The confusion with the names is clarified by the history of the attraction: the "горки" (slides) appeared in Russia as a folk pastime, gained mass popularity in Europe, and the attraction with turns resembling the infinity symbol was patented in America.
photo
Jermaine

Grand Gatchina Palace

Krasnoarmeysky Ave., 1, Gatchina, Leningrad Region, Russia, 188307

Imperial Parks: Gatchina
Great Architects: Antonio Rinaldi
The Great Gatchina Palace was built between 1766 and 1781 in Gatchina according to the design of the Italian architect Antonio Rinaldi in the neoclassical style for Catherine II’s favorite, Count Grigory Grigoryevich Orlov. Situated on a hill above Silver Lake, the palace combines themes of a medieval castle and a country residence. The palace interiors are an example of Russian neoclassicism at the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries. The palace was one of the favorite retreats of the royal family.
photo
Jermaine

Grotto "Echo"

Dvortsovaya Sq., 1, Gatchina, Leningrad Region, Russia, 188307

Imperial Parks: Gatchina
Great Architects: Antonio Rinaldi
The "Echo" Grotto with an underground passage is a complex of structures located within the territory of the Gatchina Museum-Reserve. It consists of a grotto on the shore of Silver Lake in the Palace Park and an underground passage that connects the grotto with the cellars of the Grand Gatchina Palace. The underground gallery is the only such object among all palace and park ensembles in the suburbs of Saint Petersburg. The entire complex was created in the 1770s by architect Rinaldi simultaneously with the construction of the palace for the then owner of Gatchina, Prince Orlov.
photo
Jermaine

Eagle Column

Palace Park, Leningrad Region, Gatchina, Leningrad Region, Russia, 188307

Imperial Parks: Gatchina
Great Architects: Antonio Rinaldi
The Eagle Column is an architectural structure in the Palace Park of Gatchina. One of the earliest objects in the park, it was erected according to a design, presumably by the Italian architect Rinaldi, in the early 1770s, during the period when Gatchina belonged to Count (later Serene Prince) Grigory Orlov. It is a marble column on a high quadrangular pedestal, decorated in accordance with the canons of classicism. Its top is crowned with a sculpture of an eagle. The column forms a unified ensemble with the Eagle Pavilion, built in the years when Gatchina was owned by the heir to the throne, Grand Duke Pavel Petrovich. The monument has been restored multiple times. Various explanations are proposed for the eagle symbolism of this structure.
photo
Jermaine

Moreyskaya Column

Devil's Bridge, Catherine Park, Saint Petersburg, Russia, 196609

Petersburg: Unusual Monuments and Places
Imperial Parks of Tsarskoye Selo - Catherine Park
Great Architects: Antonio Rinaldi
The Morea Column is a monument in the Catherine Park of Tsarskoye Selo, erected in honor of the victories of Russian troops on the Morea Peninsula (Peloponnese) in 1770 during the First Archipelago Expedition of the Russian fleet in the course of the Russo-Turkish War of 1768–1774. The monument is designed in the neoclassical style and represents a rostral column made of marble. It was constructed according to the project of the Italian architect Antonio Rinaldi in 1771.
photo
Jermaine

Kagul (Rumyantsev) Obelisk

Catherine Park / Ekaterininsky Park, Saint Petersburg, Russia, 196601

Imperial Parks of Tsarskoye Selo - Catherine Park
Great Architects: Antonio Rinaldi
Intoxicated with memory, With reverence and longing I embrace your formidable marble, The proud monument of Kagul. Pushkin, 1819
photo
Jermaine

Monument to Alexander Dmitrievich Lanskoy or Marble Pedestal in Honor of Virtue and Merits

Catherine Park / Ekaterininsky Park, Saint Petersburg, Russia, 196603

Petersburg: Unusual Monuments and Places
Imperial Parks of Tsarskoye Selo - Catherine Park
Great Architects: Antonio Rinaldi
Monument to Alexander Dmitrievich Lansky ("Marble Pedestal in Honor of Virtue and Merit") — a monument in the Catherine Park of Tsarskoye Selo, dedicated to the memory of Catherine II's favorite, A. D. Lansky. It was presumably constructed according to a design by the Italian architect A. Rinaldi in 1773 as an abstract architectural allegory of "virtues and merits," not associated with any specific person or event. It became a monument to Lansky after his death in 1784.
photo
Jermaine

Crimean (Siberian) Column

Parkovaya St., 64, Saint Petersburg, Russia, 196603

Petersburg, suburbs: The Secrets of Pushkin
Great Architects: Antonio Rinaldi
Monument in the city of Pushkin (Saint Petersburg). It was erected according to a design, presumably by Rinaldi, as part of the complex of buildings of the Reserve Yard and guardhouses, constructed in the 1770s beyond the Catherine Park, on territory later incorporated into the Babolovsky Park. The column was erected after the Treaty of Küçük Kaynarca, likely in memory of the conquest of Crimea during the Russo-Turkish War of 1768–1774. After the annexation of Crimea to the Russian Empire in 1783, the monument was complemented by a sculptural composition of bronze trophies designed by G. I. Kozlov, installed at the top of the column. The monument, standing on a granite base, was made from a single monolith of "Siberian" marble, quarried in the Urals near Yekaterinburg. The Crimean Column became one of a series of military memorials that appeared in Tsarskoye Selo in the 1770s, associated with the Russo-Turkish War of 1768–1774.
photo
Jermaine

Orlovskie (Gatchina) Gates

Orlovskie Gates, Saint Petersburg, Russia, 196603

Imperial Parks of Tsarskoye Selo - Catherine Park
Great Architects: Antonio Rinaldi
The Orlov (Gatchina) Gates were erected between 1777 and 1782 on the border of Catherine Park, at the exit to the road leading to Gatchina, the former estate of General Feldzeugmeister Orlov. Empress Catherine II honored one of her favorites with this lifetime monument to commemorate the success of the campaign he led against the plague epidemic that swept through Moscow in 1771. On the facade of the gates facing Gatchina, a frieze bears an inscription taken from a poetic epistle to the general by the poet Maikov: “Moscow was saved from disaster by the Orlovs.” Another inscription, on the side facing Catherine Park, provides a more detailed account of this event.
photo
Jermaine

Chinese Theater or Stone Opera

P99P+4G Pushkinsky District, Saint Petersburg, Russia

Russia: Lost Monuments
Imperial Parks of Tsarskoye Selo: Alexander Park
Great Architects: Antonio Rinaldi
Petersburg: Lost Architectural Monuments
To the left of the entrance to Alexandrovsky Park, in the center of one of the squares, is the Chinese Theater, or the Stone Opera, as it was called during the time of Empress Catherine II. Originally, it was planned to create an "open-air theater" in its place—that is, a theater under the sky with turf benches. The theater project was developed by the architect Rinaldi, and its construction in 1778-1779 was carried out under the supervision of Neelov, who made significant changes to the original design.
photo
Jermaine

Japanese (Eastern) Pavilion or Porcelain Tower

WQ74+W8 Petrodvortsovy District, Saint Petersburg, Russia

Imperial Parks of Oranienbaum and Surroundings
Great Architects: Antonio Rinaldi
The Japanese Pavilion of the Grand Menshikov Palace was originally called the "Eastern" pavilion. Its interior rooms were richly decorated with porcelain—predominantly Japanese. Porcelain decorative items, placed on special shelves, filled almost the entire wall space. Hence the second name—the Porcelain Tower. It was here that Emperor Peter III signed his abdication: on June 29, 1762, the emperor, who had reigned for only 186 days, signed his abdication in favor of his wife, who became Empress Catherine II.
photo
Jermaine

Marble Palace - Konstantinovsky Palace

Millionnaya St., 5/1, Saint Petersburg, Russia, 191186

Petersburg: Unusual and Interesting Houses
Great Architects: Antonio Rinaldi
Petersburg: Palaces and Their Fates
Great Architects: Andrey Nikiforovich Voronikhin
It is called the Marble Palace because its decor features thirty-two types of marble from quarries in Karelia, Italy, the Urals, and Altai. The palace was a gift from Catherine II to her favorite, Grigory Orlov. He did not remain in debt and gave her a Persian diamond, the value of which was equal to that of the gifted palace. The diamond was named "Orlov" and was set into the imperial scepter. Since the late 20th century, the palace has housed the Russian Museum.
photo
Jermaine

The Third St. Isaac's Cathedral - Renaldi

Isaakievskaya Square, 4, Saint Petersburg, Russia, 190000

Great Architects: Antonio Rinaldi
The second St. Isaac's Cathedral stood on an unfortified riverbank, approximately where the monument to Peter I (the Bronze Horseman) is now located. Due to soil subsidence, cracks appeared in its walls and vaults, and in 1763 the building was dismantled. Catherine II revered the memory of Emperor Peter I and considered it her duty to rebuild St. Isaac's Cathedral. Work began in 1768 based on a design by Rinaldi. The church was conceived as an elegant Baroque structure with five domes and a three-tiered bell tower. Construction lasted 34 years. The temple was completed during the reign of Paul I by architect Brenna, who was forced by imperial order to simplify and distort Rinaldi's original design. The disproportionate and squat building did not correspond to the grand appearance of the city center. In 1809 and 1813, competitions were announced for the reconstruction projects of the third St. Isaac's Church, with the essential condition being Alexander I's desire to preserve most of Rinaldi's church. Renowned architects Quarenghi, Voronikhin, Cameron, and many others participated in the competitions, but the highest approval was given to the project of the young French architect O. Montferrand (the fourth St. Isaac's Cathedral).
photo
Jermaine

Prince Vladimir Cathedral

26 Blokhina St., Saint Petersburg, Russia, 197198

Great Architects: Antonio Rinaldi
The Cathedral in the name of Saint Equal-to-the-Apostles Prince Vladimir in Saint Petersburg is a unique work of religious architecture, consistently combining features of three styles. The Prince Vladimir Cathedral is one of the most revered churches in the city on the Neva.
photo
Jermaine

Church of Saint Catherine of Alexandria

Nevsky Ave., 32-34, Saint Petersburg, Russia, 191186

Petersburg: Stories of Nevsky Prospect
Petersburg: Unusual and Interesting Houses
Great Architects: Antonio Rinaldi
A detective story unfolded around the burial in the church of the last Polish king, Stanisław August Poniatowski, who abdicated the throne after the third partition of Poland in 1795 and spent his final years in Russia.
photo
Jermaine

The Bolshoi Theatre (Stone Theatre) of Saint Petersburg, which cost the lives and health of two great architects

Teatralnaya Square, 3, Saint Petersburg, Russia, 190000

Great Architects: Antonio Rinaldi
Great Architects: Jean Thomas de Thomon
The Bolshoi Theatre (Stone Theatre) was a St. Petersburg theatre that existed from 1784 to 1886; since 1886, it has been the St. Petersburg Conservatory. It was the first permanent theatre in Saint Petersburg, the largest in Russia, and one of the largest theatrical buildings in Europe from the 18th to the first half of the 19th century. It was located on Theatre Square in Saint Petersburg. In 1886, the Stone Theatre building was partially dismantled and rebuilt into the modern building of the St. Petersburg Conservatory.
photo
Jermaine

Tuchkov Buyan - the legendary Biron’s palace or hemp warehouses?

Bolshoy Prospekt P.S., 1A, Saint Petersburg, Russia, 197198

Petersburg: Interesting Toponyms
Great Architects: Antonio Rinaldi
Tuchkov Buyan (from the archaic *buyan* — a river pier; a place for unloading goods from ships), was mistakenly called the "Biron Palace" in the 19th century — a former building of hemp warehouses, constructed between 1763 and 1772 on the eponymous islet in the channel of the Malaya Neva, a monument of early classical St. Petersburg architecture. At the beginning of the 20th century, the channels between Buyan, neighboring unnamed islets, and Petrogradsky Island were filled in, and the name "Tuchkov Buyan" was transferred to a new urban area bounded by the modern Dobrolyubov Avenue to the north, Tuchkova Dam Street and Tuchkov Bridge to the west, Academician Likhachyov Square and Birzhevoy Bridge to the east, and the Malaya Neva to the south. The extensive block, which was planned to include Vatny Island as well, was intended to become a museum and exhibition complex; this project did not materialize due to the outbreak of World War I. In the 21st century, in the western part of Tuchkov Buyan, near the historic hemp warehouses, are located the Yubileyny sports complex and the Sportivnaya metro station.
photo
Jermaine

Cathedral of Saint Great Martyr Catherine in Kingisepp (Yamburg)

6 Nikolaeva St., Kingisepp, Leningrad Region, Russia, 188485

Great Architects: Antonio Rinaldi
The Cathedral named after the Holy Great Martyr Catherine in Kingisepp (Yamburg), towering on the bank of the Luga River, is one of the few dated monuments of Russian Baroque preserved in the territory of the Leningrad Region. This masterpiece of architecture attracts attention not only with its proportions and nobility of forms but also with the beauty of its facings.
photo
Jermaine

Church in honor of the Resurrection of Christ (Pochep city)

Oktyabrskaya Sq., 1, Pochep, Bryansk Oblast, Russia, 243400

Great Architects: Antonio Rinaldi
Consecrated in 1765, the Resurrection Cathedral is connected to the ancient history of the city, if not by its appearance, then by its material — it was built from the bricks of the dismantled Menshikov Palace. The cathedral was constructed by Kirill Grigorievich Razumovsky, the last Hetman of Ukraine. Catherine II abolished the hetman title along with Ukraine’s autonomy but granted, as compensation, extensive lands in perpetual ownership, including Pochep and its surroundings. The Resurrection Cathedral was built in memory of these events. According to one legend, the iconostasis of the Pochep cathedral was transferred from the church in the village of Perovo near Moscow, where Princess Elizabeth supposedly secretly married Alexei Razumovsky. As for its appearance, the city can be proud: the cathedral’s design captures two eras of domestic architecture — Russian Baroque and Classicism. The cathedral’s architecture is a farewell song to Baroque and simultaneously a welcoming hymn to the emerging Classicism. It is gratifying to realize that one of the earliest examples of early Russian Classicism is located in Pochep.
photo
Jermaine

Obelisk in Ust-Izhora

Shlisselburgskoye Highway, 52, Saint Petersburg, Russia, 196645

Great Architects: Antonio Rinaldi
During the Russo-Swedish War of 1788–1790, 25 residents of Ust-Izhora (the Palace estate) volunteered, in memory of which, at the request of Empress Catherine II herself, a granite obelisk was erected in 1791.
photo
Jermaine

Obelisk in Rybatskoye

Rybatsky Ave., 10, Saint Petersburg, Russia, 192012

Great Architects: Antonio Rinaldi
The village of Rybatskoye, located on the left bank of the Neva River near the mouth of the Slavyanka River, was settled during the reign of Peter I by residents of Moscow region villages, mostly fishermen from the Oka River. During the Russo-Swedish War of 1788–1790, many villagers voluntarily joined the rowing flotilla that fought against the Swedes. In memory of this, a granite obelisk was erected in the village in 1791, which has been preserved to this day. Monumental in form and concise in composition, the monument is installed on a high quadrangular pedestal with a stepped base.
photo
Jermaine

Basilica di Sant'Agostino in Campo Marzio - Basilica of Sant'Agostino - in Campo Marzio, Rome

Piazza di Sant'Agostino, 00186 Rome RM, Italy

Great Architects: Antonio Rinaldi
The Basilica of Saint Augustine, located on the square of the same name, was one of the first Roman churches of the Renaissance era, and its origins date back to the 14th century, when the Augustinians decided to build a new basilica for their monastery and dedicate it to the patron saint of their order. Built near Via della Scrofa, this building was demolished in 1746 when Luigi Vanvitelli and Antonio Rinaldi expanded the Sant'Agostino monastery. In 1756, the architects also radically altered the church's interior and, by adding a hemispherical dome on a cylindrical drum—the first Renaissance dome in Rome—added side scrolls to the façade and changed the 15th-century bell tower to a square tower. The façade is clad with travertine blocks, taken, according to the tradition of that time, from the Colosseum. The interior, in the shape of a Latin cross, is divided into three naves with five chapels on each of the side naves, a transept, and an apse surrounded by other chapels.
photo
Jermaine

Italian Architects in Saint Petersburg - Busts of Four Italian Architects

Manezhnaya Square, 4, Saint Petersburg, Russia, 191023

Petersburg: Unusual Monuments and Places
Great Architects: Antonio Rinaldi
Great Architects: Giacomo Quarenghi
The busts of four Italian architects—Antonio Rinaldi, Carlo Rossi, Giacomo Quarenghi, and Bartolomeo Rastrelli—appeared on Manezhnaya Square in Saint Petersburg in 2003 thanks to sculptors V.E. Gorevoy and architect V.V. Popov. This was a gift from the government of the Italian Republic and the municipality of the city of Milan for the 300th anniversary of Saint Petersburg.
photo
Jermaine

Stroganov Dacha (Stroganov's Dacha, Stroganov Garden, Stroganov Park)

Stroganovsky Park, Ushakovskaya Embankment, 15 building 2, Saint Petersburg, Russia, 197342

Great Architects: Antonio Rinaldi
Petersburg: Lost Architectural Monuments
Great Architects: Andrey Nikiforovich Voronikhin
The area on the Vyborg side of Saint Petersburg, near the place where the Chyornaya River flows into the Bolshaya Nevka, belonged to the baron-counts Stroganov from the mid-18th century to the early 20th century. It is bordered to the south by the Bolshaya Nevka, to the east and north by the Chyornaya River, and to the west by the park of the Saltykova dacha. The owners themselves called this area the "Mandurova estate." In a narrower sense, the Stroganov dacha also referred to the main building of this estate.
photo
Jermaine