Description
The church of Nostra Signora della Neve (Our Lady of the Snow) is a neo-Romanesque Salesian church on Viale Garibaldi, in the center of La Spezia, at the top of a great staircase. It was consecrated in 1901 and keeps on its high altar an ancient Madonna painted on wood that the people of La Spezia consider miraculous.
The story begins with a flood. The Lagora stream bursts its banks, the water invades a country house outside the walls and destroys everything. Everything except one thing: an image of the Madonna painted on wood. The people cried miracle.
In 1595 a chapel was built for it, with the inscription "This Sanctuary arose from the devotion of the people of La Spezia." In 1864 the chapel was demolished to make room for the Arsenal, and the image moved to the church of Santa Maria Assunta, then in 1881 to the Salesians.
The Salesians wanted a larger temple. The design is by the architect Giuseppe Ferrari d'Orsara, who mixed with some freedom the early Christian basilicas, the monuments of Constantinople and San Vitale in Ravenna, using almost only stone from local quarries.
The facade is neo-Romanesque, with white and gray bands and three portals. The central portal, in carved wood, has in its lunette a mosaic reproducing Our Lady of the Snow. The side lunettes recall Saint Francis de Sales and Saint John Bosco.
Two false bell towers on the sides complete the whole, while the real bell tower stands at the far end of the right side, along Via Napoli.
Inside, the effect is that of a small Byzantine basilica: three aisles with pairs of red Verona marble columns, Corinthian capitals and a coffered ceiling decorated with stars on a blue ground. The dome shows Christ enthroned among the Apostles.
An ambulatory runs around the high altar. On the triumphal arch a Latin inscription invokes the Virgin "whiter than snow": "look upon your Spezia." The pulpit of pale stone rests on red marble columns.
The surprise came in 1968, with the restoration of the Madonna della Neve. Beneath a crude 19th-century paint layer, X-rays revealed a 15th-century work. It was the discovery of a genuine witness to the city's history.
And the miracle, for the devout, repeated itself: in the bombing of June 5, 1943, which destroyed almost the whole avenue and the nearby streets, the church remained intact.
Don't miss
• The Madonna della Neve on the high altar.
• The mosaic on the central portal.
• The red marble columns.
• The ceiling of stars.
Did you know?
• In the atrium a plaque recalls the link with the Roman basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, to which the church has been spiritually united since 1924.
• The image was crowned in the name of Pope Pius XII on November 9, 1952.
The story begins with a flood. The Lagora stream bursts its banks, the water invades a country house outside the walls and destroys everything. Everything except one thing: an image of the Madonna painted on wood. The people cried miracle.
In 1595 a chapel was built for it, with the inscription "This Sanctuary arose from the devotion of the people of La Spezia." In 1864 the chapel was demolished to make room for the Arsenal, and the image moved to the church of Santa Maria Assunta, then in 1881 to the Salesians.
The Salesians wanted a larger temple. The design is by the architect Giuseppe Ferrari d'Orsara, who mixed with some freedom the early Christian basilicas, the monuments of Constantinople and San Vitale in Ravenna, using almost only stone from local quarries.
The facade is neo-Romanesque, with white and gray bands and three portals. The central portal, in carved wood, has in its lunette a mosaic reproducing Our Lady of the Snow. The side lunettes recall Saint Francis de Sales and Saint John Bosco.
Two false bell towers on the sides complete the whole, while the real bell tower stands at the far end of the right side, along Via Napoli.
Inside, the effect is that of a small Byzantine basilica: three aisles with pairs of red Verona marble columns, Corinthian capitals and a coffered ceiling decorated with stars on a blue ground. The dome shows Christ enthroned among the Apostles.
An ambulatory runs around the high altar. On the triumphal arch a Latin inscription invokes the Virgin "whiter than snow": "look upon your Spezia." The pulpit of pale stone rests on red marble columns.
The surprise came in 1968, with the restoration of the Madonna della Neve. Beneath a crude 19th-century paint layer, X-rays revealed a 15th-century work. It was the discovery of a genuine witness to the city's history.
And the miracle, for the devout, repeated itself: in the bombing of June 5, 1943, which destroyed almost the whole avenue and the nearby streets, the church remained intact.
Don't miss
• The Madonna della Neve on the high altar.
• The mosaic on the central portal.
• The red marble columns.
• The ceiling of stars.
Did you know?
• In the atrium a plaque recalls the link with the Roman basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, to which the church has been spiritually united since 1924.
• The image was crowned in the name of Pope Pius XII on November 9, 1952.