Santi Protasio e Gervasio Parish Church
Address and contacts
Via Nasciuti, 1 - 42012 Campagnola Emilia
Phones
0039 0522 663947 - Pastoral Unity
0039 0522 663591 - San Giovanni Bosco Oratory
How to get there
See the indication to reach Campagnola Emilia
Historical notes
The church dedicated to Saints Protase and Gervase in Campagnola was founded by Bishop Ambrose of Milan during his voluntary exile in Bologna between 392 and 394. At the time, it may have been a parish church which oversaw other baptismal churches in the area.
A document from the Monastery of San Prospero dated 1099 states that the parish church of Campagnola, dedicated to the Martyred Saints Gervase and Protase, stood in the district of Motta Bernini, to the south-west of the village. The church had one nave and two aisles and was surrounded by a cemetery as was the custom of the time.
There are very few existing details about the church in the period up to 1299.
Between 1612 and 1621, a new church was built on the site of the present one, thanks to donations by the local population and the Prince of Correggio.
Once the new building was completed, the old castle church of “Campagnola vecchia” was demolished.
The new construction had one nave, two aisles, and four archways, with a choir, a pulpit, and two common burial grounds.
In 1770 the architect Bartolomeo Rocco from Milan was appointed to restore the church and the works were completed in 1772.
The organ, made by Luigi MonteSanti from Mantova in 1798 has twenty-two registers, and the baptismal font was built in 1820.
In 1800, the church was endowed with a fine tabernacle in inlaid wood with silver and mother-of-pearl decorations, made by Friar Fedele da Scandiano.
The clock in the bell tower, installed in 1923, is the work of Guglielmo Ferrari from Campagnola (the present electronic clock dates to the early 1980s).
Works to complete the buildings annexed to the church and to restore the church interior were carried out subsequently.
The church façade has simple lines and is subdivided into two levels separated by a horizontal cornice. The protruding elements, including the coupled pilaster strips, the cornices, the depressed arch tympanum, and the mouldings give movement but also regularity to the architectural design. The crescent-shaped niche above the main portal contains a fine terracotta bas-relief of St. Peter, a reference to the old church of San Pietro del Castellazzo.
The building has a Greek cross layout, inspired by the church of the Madonna della Ghiara in Reggio Emilia.
On the northern side of the church there is a deep presbytery with a semicircular apse.
The church interior has one nave and two aisles with barrel vaults resting on fluted columns and pilaster strips.
In the middle of the main nave there is a false dome about two metres high with a painting of the Glory of Saints Gervase and Protase in the centre, and the four Evangelists in the four surrounding segments.
The altar of the Crucifix at the end of the left aisle has an ancon in white stucco, on the sides of which are two black spiral columns with angels dressed in golden garments holding up the capitals.
The interesting altar frontal is in polychrome scagliola depicting flower garlands, cornucopias, scrolls, and birds with the image of the crucifix in the middle.
The wealth of paintings and artworks which the church has acquired over its long history include altarpieces listed and protected by the Region’s Fine Arts Department.
On the left of the presbytery is a canvas painting depicting the Madonna with Infant Jesus and a woman in the act of proffering a child to a saint. The latter is mistakenly identified as San Bernardino but is, in fact, San Francesco da Paola.
The large altarpiece of the main altar was painted in 1837 by the painter Luigi Manzini from Modena. It depicts the Saints Sebastian, Luigi Gonzaga, Gaetano, Mauro, Rocco, Gervase, and Protase, crowned by an angel. The artist belonged to the group of Neoclassical painters from the academic school of Modena. The attribution of the painting is confirmed by a receipt dated 1837 given by Luigi Manzini to Don Tiberio Saltini, the parish priest of Campagnola at the time.
On the right of the presbytery is a canvas of the Madonna and Saints Antonio Abate and Clare, with an angel holding a crosier and an Ambrosian monstrance.
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