Description
The Church of Nostra Signora della Salute, also called the Madonna della Scorza, is the sanctuary of the Umbertino district, on Piazza Brin, in La Spezia. You can recognize it by its two bell towers with neo-Baroque domes.
The church was built from 1887 for the new working-class Umberto I district, to a design by the architect Maurizio Dufour. It opened for worship in 1900 and was consecrated in 1910, but the bell towers were only finished in 1912.
Inside there is a single vaulted nave, with galleries on either side of the presbytery. The Baroque marble high altar dates from 1771: older than the church that houses it.
Above the altar, about eleven meters up, four columns of yellow Verona marble frame the throne of the Madonna della Salute, the painting venerated by the faithful. Its author and origin are unknown; it appears to be a 16th-century work.
In 1925 the painting was adorned with gold diadems, made by melting down jewelry and trinkets donated by the parishioners. That same year the Tamburini organ was inaugurated, in the choir loft above the entrance, and was restored in 1991 by the same firm that built it.
In the right aisle there is a painting by the Genoese Giovanni Andrea De Ferrari with the child Virgin and Saints Anne and Joachim. In the left one, the Dead Christ stands out, a dramatic wooden sculpture by Carlo Giovannoni of La Spezia, from 1965. Near the entrance, a holy water font still bears the marks of a serious act of vandalism in 1907.
The name and the devotion come from another church: the ancient oratory of the Madonna della Scorza, next to a 16th-century convent, where Viale Ferrari runs today. It was demolished when the railway station moved from Valdellora to its present site.
All that remains of that oratory are a few columns, reused in the building of the former Hotel Terminus, built between 1906 and 1908 by the architect Zanazzo.
In front of the church, on Piazza Brin, stands the Fontana delle Voci by Mirko Basaldella, from 1956.
The church was built from 1887 for the new working-class Umberto I district, to a design by the architect Maurizio Dufour. It opened for worship in 1900 and was consecrated in 1910, but the bell towers were only finished in 1912.
Inside there is a single vaulted nave, with galleries on either side of the presbytery. The Baroque marble high altar dates from 1771: older than the church that houses it.
Above the altar, about eleven meters up, four columns of yellow Verona marble frame the throne of the Madonna della Salute, the painting venerated by the faithful. Its author and origin are unknown; it appears to be a 16th-century work.
In 1925 the painting was adorned with gold diadems, made by melting down jewelry and trinkets donated by the parishioners. That same year the Tamburini organ was inaugurated, in the choir loft above the entrance, and was restored in 1991 by the same firm that built it.
In the right aisle there is a painting by the Genoese Giovanni Andrea De Ferrari with the child Virgin and Saints Anne and Joachim. In the left one, the Dead Christ stands out, a dramatic wooden sculpture by Carlo Giovannoni of La Spezia, from 1965. Near the entrance, a holy water font still bears the marks of a serious act of vandalism in 1907.
The name and the devotion come from another church: the ancient oratory of the Madonna della Scorza, next to a 16th-century convent, where Viale Ferrari runs today. It was demolished when the railway station moved from Valdellora to its present site.
All that remains of that oratory are a few columns, reused in the building of the former Hotel Terminus, built between 1906 and 1908 by the architect Zanazzo.
In front of the church, on Piazza Brin, stands the Fontana delle Voci by Mirko Basaldella, from 1956.