The ancient Cemetery of Mortorino is halfway between a burial ground and a temple.
About the cemetery
In 1684, Count Giorgio Pallavicino Triulzio donated a plot next to the church to be destined for a cemetery. The cemetery was then built in 1765 by Vincenzo Ghisalberti, rector of the church. The cemetery is delimited by a side-wall with only two windows with wrought-iron grating. The inner space is square-shaped and it is surrounded by a four-sided portico with five spans each side. It is a place where faith, art and pity are combined in perfect harmony.It is a symmetrical and harmonious environment and the walls
are magnificently decorated with a fresco of Via Crucis (the fourteen Stations of the Cross), made by Giovanni Battista Ronchelli, a painter from Varese. Under the main altar there is also a fresco reproducing Saint Fiorano and the souls in Purgatory. Beside the entrance, a name can be read - Cannon Cavalier. That could be the architect's name.
During 1859 the Austrian troops stayed at the cemetery and seriously damaged the site. In 1883 pictures of Via Crucis, gift of Luigia Sfondini, were saved in parish church. In 1986, the restoration of the site began. Those pictures needed more than one painter to do the reconstruction and Ronchelli's style appears evident in the central figures. Faces are deeply expressive-and sculpted by the light; some lines call Tiziano to mind and one of the paintings reminds of Michelangelo's “Pietà”.
Cemetery Address
Cemetery of MortorinoVia Giorgio Pallavicino 1
26848 San Fiorano (LO)
Italy
Tourist information
Municipality of San FioranoPiazza Roma 1
26848 San Fiorano (LO)
Tel: +39 037753720
Email: info@comune.sanfiorano.lo.it
comune.sanfiorano@pec.regione.lombardia.it
Website: www.comune.sanfiorano.lo.it