Beata Vergine Incoronata Church, Renaissance church in Sabbioneta, Italy.
Beata Vergine Incoronata is a Renaissance church in Sabbioneta with an octagonal plan, built between 1586 and 1588 on the site of the demolished churches of San Biagio and San Niccolò. Its eight surrounding chapels were decorated mainly in the 18th century, with quadratura frescoes painted in 1768 by a team led by Antonio Galli Bibiena. The church is similar to the Bramantesque Santa Maria Incoronata in Lodi.
Vespasiano I Gonzaga commissioned the church, built between 1586 and 1588 on the ruins of the churches of San Biagio and San Niccolò, which he had demolished. It replaced an earlier church on the site dedicated to San Niccolò. In 1592 Giovanni Battista Della Porta completed the polychrome marble funeral monument to the duke, whose bronze statue by Leone Leoni, made around 1560, was moved there from Piazza Ducale only in 1656.
The church holds the polychrome marble tomb of Vespasiano I Gonzaga, built around 1592 by Giovanni Battista Della Porta, with a bronze seated statue of the duke by Leone Leoni placed there in 1656. In 2018 the remains of Vespasiano, his wife Anna d'Aragona and their children Luigi and Giulia were reinterred in the monument.
The church stands in the historic centre of Sabbioneta, a short walk from the Ducal Palace and the town's other Gonzaga buildings. It is an active place of worship, so visits may be limited during services. The octagonal interior is compact and can be seen in a short time.
The church was part of a larger plan from the start, where the entire city was designed as a work of art. This makes it a rare example of an urban vision that was actually built.
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