Santa Maria Maddalena church, Renaissance church in Castelnuovo Magra, Italy.
Santa Maria Maddalena is a church in Piazza del Parlamento, Castelnuovo Magra, built in the 17th century in a late Renaissance style over an earlier place of worship. Its Baroque facade has a portal with a 1671 bas-relief of the penitent Magdalene and a donor. Inside, three naves are divided by eight Carrara marble columns, said to come from the church of Santa Maria Assunta in Luni.
The present church was built in the 17th century in a late Renaissance style on the remains of an earlier place of worship. Its Baroque façade carries a portal with a bas-relief dated 1671 showing the penitent Mary Magdalene and the donor. The 19th-century choir was made with material from the old local bishop's palace.
The parish church is dedicated to Mary Magdalene, depicted in the 1671 bas-relief on the portal together with its donor. San Fedele, patron saint of Castelnuovo Magra, appears in an 18th-century painting at the second altar, with the town shown in the background. The church belongs to the Vicariate of Bassa Val di Magra in the Diocese of La Spezia-Sarzana-Brugnato.
The church stands on Piazza del Parlamento in Castelnuovo Magra, not on Via Dante. The entrance is on the Baroque façade with the 1671 portal; inside, the Brueghel Crucifixion is no longer on view, having been moved to a safer place after its 1981 theft and recovery.
The painting of the Crucifixion attributed to Pieter Brueghel the Younger, once kept in the left chapel, shows four crosses on Mount Calvary in a Flemish setting. Donated by a wealthy family and hidden during the Second World War, it was stolen in 1981 and recovered by the Carabinieri a few months later; it is now kept in a safer place.
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