Bibles of stones, sculpture manuscripts, tales and figures came to life from the hands of skilled Romanesque stonemasons at Fidenza Cathedral of Saint Domninus. Wise magisters whose power of symbolic knowledge made it possible to transform imagination into real form. But also humble people of faith who carved the stone giving it deep and unchanging meanings. On the facades of Romanesque churches, along the aisles, on the capitals and in the historiated friezes anyone could read. Through the stone the faithful could understand the message embodied in the iconographic motifs, the depictions of real or fantastic animals, the symbologies of seasonal cycles. Again, he could interpret the metaphors of the pagan tradition and chivalric literature of the time. All these are expressions of faith and at the same time of fear of the unknown.
The Medieval master sculptors made accessible to everyone what was otherwise known to few. At that time only the clergy, feudal nobility and civil authorities could read and write. Few names we have of those artists who shaped stone and with it the society of the Middle Ages. However, we know that Benedetto Antelami designed and made the extraordinary work of Fidenza Cathedral of Saint Domninus.
Fidenza Cathedral of Saint Domninus
The most important place of worship in Fidenza is the city cathedral, named after the Christian martyr Domninus. The church has a Romanesque style with some brilliant additions in Gothic style. Among them there are the gabled facade, characterized by three portals with prothyrum, flanked by side towers. Also, the basilica structure has a nave and two aisles, without a transept, and pointed arch vaults surmount it. The women’s galleries open inward with large four-mullioned windows framed by blind arches. Finally, under the well raised presbytery is located the crypt.
This is only the most recent aspect of a complex history and several reconstructions, the last started in the second half of the 12th century. Several sources document the vicissitudes of the church, linked to the Medieval settlement that arose around it, called Borgo San Donnino. We also find traces of such events in another admirable narrative consisting not of letters and pages, but of the sculptural forms that Antelami and his workshop skilfully crafted on the church’s façade. Indeed, besides the biblical and pagan depictions, it is possible to observe the pivotal moments of the place and of the great popular devotion that marked its history.
The history of Saint Domninus
A frieze from left to right of the main portal, and on its lintel, describes Saint Domninus’ life. According to a popular tradition in the Middle Ages, the martyrdom of the saint occurred near a ford of the Stirone stream. This is the site where the church that bears his name was constructed. The common hagiographic tales of the time certainly inspired the design of the friezes. Different copies of that Passio of Saint Domninus were written1, all largely in concordance with the events narrated. Most sources belong to the 11th and 12th centuries, but the saint is mentioned in manuscripts as early as the 9th century2.
The Passio of Saint Domninus
According to the Passio, Donninus held a prominent position in Emperor Maximian’s army in Trier, perhaps that of cubicularius. Suddenly, he decided to leave it to evangelize. Learning of the terrible persecutions the ruler was inflicting on Christians, he took refuge in Rome around year 303.
He never arrived there. Instead, Maximian’s soldiers joined him on the Via Aemilia, fifteen miles from Parma. Here, in “loco fluvio Sisterioni pene contiguo“, near the ford that once served the Roman city of Fidentia, his beheading took place. It was at that moment that the great miracle occurred. In fact, Domninus picked up his head from the ground and began to hold it in his hands. He then walked along the bridge that crossed the Stirone River. When he reached the other bank, he stopped to the amazement of those present.
According to hagiographies, in that exact place he was buried and the tomb was hidden in the forest. Only with the advent of Constantine was the burial site finally cleared of vegetation. The bishop of Parma ordered the construction of a parva ecclesia over it, probably a martyrium for popular devotion.
The second inventio
As the years passed, the Passio reports, the number of worshippers who went there to pray continued to increase, so much so that the bishop decided to enlarge the building. In the meantime, however, the exact location of the burial was again forgotten and a new inventio became necessary. After the finding of the body, a large number of people crowded onto the wooden bridge over the Stirone. But this caused its collapse. Nevertheless, no one was injured, a sign that indicated Donnino’s sanctity in the eyes of the faithful.
From Fidentia to Borgo San Donnino
Near the site of Saint Domninus’ martyrdom there was already a town in ancient Roman times. Little remains of this village, called Fidentia, and located along the route of the Via Aemilia. Its presence was mentioned during the age of Sulla in the writings of Plutarch and Livy, who chronicled the events of the civil war of 82 B.C.3. By the Augustan age Fidentia was probably an important settlement, so much so that Pliny the Elder included it among the municipia of the VIII Regio4.
At the end of the third century A.D., however, the great political and economic crisis of the Roman Empire also involved the Emilian village, which depopulated and faced a long period of decline. Thus in the Itinerarium Antonini it was no longer named as civitas but became only the small Fidentiola vicus5. It was in this context of ancient and lost wealth, of a city now in ruins, that, according to hagiographies, Saint Domninus crossed the Stirone holding his deceased head in his hands.
The foundation of Charlemagne
In a different version of the saint’s hagiography, a late Florentine Passio, it was Charlemagne who commissioned the church extension. The consecration allegedly took place at the presence of the emperor. The cathedral sculptures placed near the tympanum of the left portal also attested this tradition.
Leaving aside the figure of Charlemagne, not infrequently used in mythical foundation stories, it is indeed possible that a reconstruction of the early martyrium occurred between the 8th and 9th centuries. Indeed, an examination of the sarcophagus containing the saint’s remains, carried out in 1853, revealed the presence of a covering slab with a Carolingian cross datable to that period6. Even the earliest record of the building, a dispute between the vicedominus Orso of San Donnino and the abbot of Fiorenzuola dated to the year 830, is not much later than the life of Charlemagne7.
Borgo San Donnino and the latest church reconstructions
The Carolingian-era edifice, built over the saint’s tomb, was the pivot around which a new settlement developed, overlaying the remnants of ancient Roman Fidentia. This was the Burgus Sancti Domnini of the Medieval sources8. The town was now located along the Via Francigena, an important pilgrimage route of the time, so much so that it was mentioned in the itinerary of Sigeric, the archbishop of Canterbury who traveled the route in 9909. The considerable flow of people and wayfarers, who passed through there on their way to Rome, soon had to require reconstruction and extension work on the church dedicated to Domninus. Due to various vicissitudes, related to disagreements with the bishop of Parma and disputes between the cities of northern Italy and Emperor Frederick Barbarossa, these interventions were carried out at different times between the 11th and 12th centuries.
A first building site was initiated during the schism of Pietro Cadalo, elected antipope in 1061 at the Diet of Basel and known to history as Honorius II. First a historic fief of the Pallavicino family, Borgo became a free commune in 1102 and proclaimed itself loyal to Frederick Barbarossa, who granted it imperial privileges with a diploma in 116210. In this climate of renewal Benedetto Antelami set about to construct the current building. Work began in the last quarter of the 12th century but remained unfinished. This is evident from the incomplete elevation, since it is assumed that the artist was called to Parma.
Benedetto Antelami’s contribution to Fidenza Cathedral
There is a debate about Antelami’s contribution at Fidenza Cathedral. First of all, there are no documentary sources attesting to his unquestionable presence in Borgo San Donnino. However, we know with certainty that the artist operated in Parma in 1178. Here, he made the Deposition panel for the Cathedral, and worked at the Baptistery in 1196. The style of the magister Antelami in the design of the church of Saint Domninus and in the conception of its figurative cycles, therefore, is recognized on a stylistic basis11.
Symbols and iconography on the façade of the Fidenza Cathedral of Saint Domninus.
Benedetto Antelami conceived for Fidenza Cathedral an eschatological iconography addressed to wayfarers traveling along the Via Francigena. The dimension of pilgrimage is present throughout the sculptural decoration, which invites penance and conversion along the way.
The major portal
Only the righteous can enter the sacred building. Thus, in the carvings on either side of the major portal on the façade, King David reassures that “this is the Lord’s own gate, where the victors enter“. However, prophet Ezekiel reminds that “he brought me back to the outer gate of the sanctuary, facing the east; but it was closed“.
The columns resting on stylophore lions support the prothyrum of the portal. One of them is devouring a heifer, the other slaying a serpentine dragon. This is the representation of Judah lion, an eschatological and prophetic figure of Christ the King. A recurring reference in biblical symbolism is to the lion-Christ Ariel who defeats the serpent-demon.
Christ leads humanity to salvation through his saving work, an act of universal love, as the sculptural decorations of the prothyrum arch clearly show. He is the one who, seated enthroned at the keystone, separates the Old Testament prophets, depicted along the left half, from the apostles placed on the right side. Christ does not abolish the law of the prophets but brings it to fulfillment through love. Indeed, the keystone cartouches recite the principle of the Jewish Shemah “Hear, o Israel, the commandments of life, and blessed are the humble in spirit“. Note, on the left of the Christ, the presence of a rudimentary carving of the sacred center, here interpretable as an image of the creator God.
The right portal of Fidenza Cathedral
The figure of a pilgrim dominated the right portal, enclosed by a prothyrum with an arch and a pediment. An inscription tells us he is the humble Raimondinus (Raimondinus vilis), a local saint of little-known hagiography. At the tympanum the blessing archpriest of Saint Donninus symbolizes the Church. Instead, the prothyrum arch houses zoomorphic figures of the deadly sins.
The two panels inside the prothyrum vault symbolise Christ’s victory over evil. On the left Hercules slays the Nemean lion; on the right a huge griffin grabs a deer. Again, the portal lunette hosts the famous iconography of Archangel Michael defeating the dragon. Finally, the hand carved on the lintel reminds us about the mystery of the Trinity.
The left portal
The subject depicted on the apex of the pediment, near the prothyrum of the left portal, is a subject of debate. Common opinion says that it is a commander of the Pallavicino family, the feudal lords of Borgo San Donnino. On the other hand, as already mentioned, the tympanum includes some key moments in the town’s history. The scenes recall the consecration of the cathedral by Pope Adrian II and its consecration as an “Imperial church” by Charlemagne. Along the arch of the prothyrum, in contrast to the figures of the sins on the right portal, are fourteen panels representing the theological and cardinal virtues in equal pairs.
A Virgin Hodegetria decorated the portal lunette, on either side of which it is possible to recognize two groups of women in the act of prayer.
The later sculptural additions
Other ashlars of uncertain attribution were later added to Antelami’s fine sculptures. On the original masonry, consisting of regular blocks, new tiles were placed, many of them reused. This is a sign of a change in patronage, probably no longer interested in an iconographic uniformity of design. Thus we find the causal affixing of the dream of Saint Joseph and the Prophet Elijah taken up to heaven on either side of the main portal; on the left buttress an enthroned King Herod and a depiction of the Three Magi; on the right buttress of a frieze the debated Stories of Charlemagne, Bertha, Milo and Rolandinus, which originated perhaps from a 12th-13th century chansons de geste12.
On the left side tower, the observer also notices a square tile depicting the Flight of Alexander the Great. It represents a myth according to which the emperor made his chariot fly by harnessing griffins to it. To force the animals to take off, Alexander lifted two spears holding pieces of meat into the sky.
The Merels Board of Fidenza Cathedral
A Merels Board appears half-hidden behind the right column of the central prothyrum, engraved in an upright position. This is a curious fact since the inscription belongs to the group of the so-called Medieval tabulae lusoriae, that is, it represents the board of the game of filet.
However, it is here placed on a vertical wall, effectively making its use for playful purposes impossible. Rather, some symbolic meaning needs to be considered. Like the Debir of Solomon’s Temple in Jerusalem, enclosed within three walls, so the Fidenza Cathedral of Saint Domninus constituted the place of the encounter between God and man.
Samuele Corrente Naso
Map of places
Notes
- G. Gregori, Le Passio di San Donnino di Fidenza, in M. Catarsi e G. Gregori, San Donnino e la sua Cattedrale. La nascita del Borgo, Catalogo Mostra Fidenza 2 aprile – 16 luglio, Parma, 2006. ↩︎
- Just as an example: Bibl. Bodleiana of Oxford, 11th century, misc. 560, ff. 67-73; Bibl. Vaticana, 11th century [Cod. Vat. Lat. 83]; Bibl. Vaticana, 11th-12th century [Cod. Vat. Lat. 1190]; Bibl. Ambrosiana, 11th century [Cod. D. 84, inf.]; Bibl. Nazionale di Torino, 11th century [G, V, 20 e F, I, 5]; Bibl. Palatina di Parma, 11th century, Passionario Parmense; Bibl. Palatina di Parma, secolo XII [ms. 996]; Biblioteca Universitaria di Bologna, 1180 [Cod. 1473]; Bibl. Laurenziana di Firenze, 11th century [pluteus XX codes 1, 2 e 4]; Archive of the Duomo di San Martino in Lucca, 11th century [cod. 606]; Bibl. Antoniana di Padova, early 9th century [cod. I, 27]; Zürich Central Library, 9th-10th century [Cod. 101]; Bavarian State Library of Munich, early 9th century [Cod. 6333]. See: A. Aimi, A. Copelli, Storia di Fidenza, Parma, 1982. ↩︎
- Plutarch, Life of Sulla, 28. ↩︎
- Pliny the Elder, Naturalis historia, III, 15,116. ↩︎
- Itinerarium Antonini, 99,1; 127,6. See M. Catarsi, Da Fidentiola vicus a Castrum Burgi Sancti Domnini, in M. Catarsi e G. Gregori, San Donnino e la sua Cattedrale. La nascita del Borgo, Catalogo Mostra Fidenza 2 April- 16 July, Parma, 2006. ↩︎
- Ibid note 7. ↩︎
- E. Nasalli Rocca, Giurisdizioni ecclesiastiche e civili in Borgo S. Donnino, in Archivio storico per le province parmensi 17, 1965. ↩︎
- J. G. Th. Graesse, Orbis Latinus, Brunopoli, vol. III, 1972. ↩︎
- Itinerario di Sigerico, British Library of London, catalogued as MS Cotton Tiberius B. V, ff. 23v – 24r. ↩︎
- Enciclopedia Treccani, page. ↩︎
- M. Lopez, A. K. Porter, G. De Francovich, C. Frugoni, Antelami a Parma, editore Franco Maria Ricci, 2021; R. Tassi, Il duomo di Fidenza, Milano 1974. ↩︎
- G. Gregori, Carlomagno e i carolingi a Fidenza. Le storie di Berta, Milone e Rolandino, Cremona, Fantigrafica ed., 2009. ↩︎
