The Sanctuary of the Madonna del Baraccano is a Renaissance style, Roman Catholic church, located at Piazza del Baraccano 2 at the southern edge of the formerly walled central Bologna, region of Emilia-Romagna, Italy. The church was built at the site of city wall, where a Madonna image was painted, hence called Madonna of the Barricade. Presently much at the site is undergoing restoration after the May 2012 earthquake.
History
In 1401, during a siege of Bologna by Gian Galeazzo Visconti, an elderly woman was spied kneeling in prayer next to the wall where a Madonna image was present. Suspecting she was voicing secrets through a small gap in the wall, she was arrested, and the town leader, Bente Bentivoglio had a wall built interior to the wall to seal the site. When that wall collapsed soon after construction, Bentivoglio interpreted this as a miracle, had the old woman freed. In 1438 an oratory had been built. By 1497, Giovanni Bentivoglio II had Francesco Cossa repaint the image,[1] (original by Lippo di Dalmasio), and built a portico to shelter the image. In 1524, The church was built with its tympanum with a terracota virgin by Alfonso Lombardi. The porticoed forecourt was added in 1550, and the cupola was added in 1682 on a design by A. Barelli.[2]
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