Audiotour 6_THE CHURCH OF SAN DONATO IN CREMONA_en

THE CHURCH OF SAN DONATO IN CREMONA

Located in the south-east area of the fortress in the immediate vicinity of the bastion of the Church that owes its name, the church of San Donato in Cremona was the subject of an in-depth archaeological investigation by the Superintendence for Archaeological Heritage of Tuscany between 2009 and 2014. After the removal of substantial levels of accumulation resulting from the powerful break-ins conducted in the 60s of the twentieth century for the construction of the large water tank in the center of the Fortress, it provided exceptional and unexpected results.

Under the planking level of the early twentieth century came to light in all its monumentality the ancient church of San Donato in Cremona, known from documentary sources since 1098, damaged by the French in November 1800: the building, oriented east-west, is about 25 m long and about 10 m wide; the hall is divided into three large naves by pillars, of which the remains of the bases have been found, and the perimeter dry walled with a beautiful facing in squared limestone blocks.

The damage to the church by the Napoleonic troops is evidenced by the presence of two identified pits in the corners of the façade, which correspond to the signs left by the mines used to try to knock it down.

Following the damage, with the fortress now disarmed at the behest of the Lorraine, the church was razed to the ground. Unfortunately, the destruction operations also affected the floor plan so it was not possible to identify any portion of it.

The quota of the floor inside the room can only be hypothesized on the basis of the greater accuracy in the processing of the exposed stones of the internal facing wall.

In the naves, to confirm what is reported in a plan of the early nineteenth century, there are seven grain silos of the 'flask' type built in brick with a stone mouth that opened into the floor of the church, the last defensive bulwark inside the Fortress. At the center of the middle nave one of the silos insists on a pre-existing bell furnace of which the chamber and combustion channel have been documented.

The presbytery area has instead revealed the presence of an extraordinarily preserved crypt, with the same three-nave partition of the upper church. The room was covered by cross vaults of which the joints with shelf supports remain; still in situ are the two stone columns (one in granite from a previous Roman building located nearby) with their respective shaped bases, as well as the floor in stone slabs. Inside the crypt, six excavation essays have been carried out that have allowed to document pre-existing Roman times.

The crypt and the upper church have the apse partly incorporated and reused in the defensive perimeter of the sixteenth century.