San Benedetto, Renaissance church in Ferrara, Italy.
San Benedetto is a church in Ferrara built between 1496 and 1553 to a design by Biagio Rossetti for the Benedictines who had left Pomposa. It was consecrated in 1563, and its bell tower was added in 1621. The church is the seat of a parish and also includes an oratory, a cinema-theatre and a sports field.
Benedictine monks commissioned the construction after relocating from Pomposa Abbey, where malaria had made their previous settlement untenable. Work on the building spanned from the late 15th century through the mid-16th century.
The church temporarily housed the remains of poet Ludovico Ariosto until 1801, when they were transferred to the Ariostea Library in Ferrara.
The church stands on Piazzale San Benedetto and is the seat of a parish that also runs an oratory, a cinema-theatre and a sports field. It was closed for restoration after the 2012 earthquake and reopened for worship on 6 April 2019. The bell tower, rebuilt in its 1621 form, was fully restored in 1999-2000.
The high altar of the Madonna held Ludovico Ariosto's body from 1612, as the poet had requested; in 1801 General Miollis had the remains moved to the Biblioteca Ariostea during the Napoleonic occupation. The church also keeps an organ brought in 2001 from the Sacro Cuore church in Bologna.
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