Historical Complex “Bambin Gesù “ Palestrina (Rome ) Italy
booklet “HCBG” realised by Flyfour studio (Vicenza) Italy
Palestrina ( Praeneste) is an ancient city and comune (municipality) with a population of about 20,000, in Lazio, about 35 kilometres east of Rome. It is connected to the latter by the Via Prenestina. Palestrina is sited on a spur of the Monti Prenestini, a range in the central Apennines. Early burials show that the site was already occupied in the 8th or 7th century BC. The ancient necropolis lay on a plateau at the foot of the hill below the ancient town. Of the objects found in the oldest graves, and supposed to date from about the 7th century BC, the cups of silver and silver-gilt and most of the gold and amber jewelry are Phoenician (possibly Carthaginian), but the bronzes and some of the ivory articles seem to be of the Etruscan civilization. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palestrina
http://www.visitlazio.com/en_GB/dettaglio/-/turismo/622945/comune-di-palestrina
Distance from Palestrina to : Rome: by train in 25 minutes. The train station in Zagarolo is approx. 15 mins and equipped with a large parking lot. Airports; Ciampino in 30 minutes and Fiumicino in 60 minutes. Tivoli, 30 minutes, tourist sites to visit are :Villa Adriana,Villa D’Este and Villa Gregoriana. (City Heritage of UNESCO) Castel Gandolfo,40 minutes, summer residence of the Pope overlooking Lake Al Bano and golf courses. Frascati, 30 minutes, Villa Aldobrandini and several wineries in the area DOC Castelli Romani. Naples, 110 Km, Pompei,,Amalfi Coast, the isles of Capri and Ischia which can be reached by regular ferries. Roman beach coast, from 60 to 90 mintues,, Ostia and Anzio, to go further south where the water is cleaner are the beaches of Sabaudia,Sperlonga, Gaeta and Circeo, all within reach of highway and freeway. L’Aquila 90 minutes to reach ski resorts of Ovindoli, Pescasseroli and Campo Staffi. Gran Sasso for mountain escursions and rock climbing.
Sanctuary of Fortuna Primigenia
Praeneste was chiefly famed for its Temple of Fortuna Primigenia connected with the oracle known as the Praenestine lots (sortes praenestinae). The temple was redeveloped after 82 BC as a spectacular series of terraces, exedras and porticos on four levels down the hillside, linked by monumental stairs and ramps. The inspiration for this feat of unified urbanistic design lay, not in republican Rome, but in the Hellenistic monarchies of the eastern Mediterranean. Praeneste offered a foretaste of the grandiose Imperial style of the following generation.The oldest portion of the primitive sanctuary was situated on the terrace just above the lowest one, in a grotto in the natural rock where there was a spring that developed into a well. As the archaic shrine was elaborated from the 2nd century BC, it was given a colored mosaic pavement representing a seascape: a temple of Poseidon on the shore, with fish of all kinds swimming in the sea. To the east of this grotto is a large space, now open, but once very possibly roofed, and forming a twostory basilica built against the rock on the north side, and there decorated with pilasters. To the east is an apsidal hall, often identified with the temple itself, in which was found the famous mosaic with scenes from the Nile, relaid in the Palazzo Barberini-Colonnain Palestrina on the uppermost terrace (now a National Museum). Under this hall is a chamber, which an inscription on its walls identified as a treasury in the 2nd century BC. In front of this temple an obelisk was erected in the reign of Claudius, fragments of which still exist. As extended under Sulla, the sanctuary of Fortune came to occupy a series of five vast terraces, which, resting on gigantic masonry substructure and connected with each other by grand staircases, rose one above the other on the hill in the form of the side of a pyramid, crowned on the highest terrace by the round temple of Fortune.This immense edifice, probably by far the largest sanctuary in Italy, must have presented a most imposing aspect, visible as it was from a great part of Latium, from Rome, and even from the sea. The ground at the foot of the lowest terrace is 1476 feet (450 m) above sea-level; here is a cistern, divided into ten large chambers, in brick-faced concrete. The goddess Fortuna here went by the name of Primigenia ("First Bearer"), she was represented suckling two babes, as in the Christian representation of Charity, said to be Jupiter and Juno, and she was especially worshipped by matrons.The oracle continued to be consulted down to Christian times, until Constantine the Great, and again later Theodosius I, forbade the practice and closed the temple. Features of the temple influenced Roman garden design on steeply sloped sites through Antiquity and once again in Italian villa gardens from the 15th century. The monument to Victor Emmanuel II in Rome owes a lot to the Praeneste sanctuary complex.
Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina
is considered by many the greatest composer of
liturgical music of all time.
Few Italian musicians can boast the extraordinary talent of Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (1525-1594), master of papal chapel for almost thirty years. Even today his vast repertoire is regularly performed during festivities sacred and profane, provoking everywhere unconditional admiration of the public. HE was one of the greatest composers of the sixteenth century. Almost totally focused on the sacred liturgy, his repertoire is indeed vast, immense legacy, able to influence brilliant musicians such as Johann Sebastian Bach, Franz Schubert and Carl Orff. Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina was born in Palestrina, a town near Rome, then part of the Papal States. He spent most of his career in Rome. Documents suggest he first visited the city in 1537, when he is listed as a chorister at Santa Maria Maggiore basilica. He studied with Robin Mallapert and Firmin Lebel. It was rumored Palestrina studied under Claude Goudimel; the story originated in the 19th century, but according to recent study, Goudimel was never in Rome. From 1544 to 1551 Palestrina was organist of the principal church of his native city (St Agapito), and in the last year became maestro di cappella at the Cappella Giulia, the papal choir at St. Peter’s Basilica. His first published compositions, a book of masses made so favorable an impression with Pope Julius III (previously the Bishop of Palestrina), that he was appointed musical director of the Julian Chapel. In addition, this was the first book of masses by a native composer: in the Italian states of his day, most composers of sacred music were from Netherlands, France, Portugal or Spain. In fact his book of masses was actually modeled on one by Morales, and the woodcut in the front is an almost exact copy of the one from the book by the Spaniard. Palestrina held positions similar to his Julian Chapel appointment at other chapels and churches in Rome during the next decade (notably St John in Lateran, from 1555 to 1560, and St Maria Maggiore, from 1561-1566). In 1571 he returned to the Julian Chapel, and remained at St Peter’s for the rest of his life. The decade of the 1570s was difficult for him personally; he lost his brother, two of his sons, and his wife in three separate outbreaks of the plague (1572, 1575, and 1580 respectively). He seems to have considered becoming a priest at this time, but instead he married again, this time to a wealthy widow; this finally gave him financial independence (he was not well paid as choirmaster) and he was able to compose prolifically until his death. He died in Rome of pleurisy in 1594.
History of the Historical Complex called “Bambin Gesù”
The oldest part of the convent seems to date back to 300, with later additions. Until the postwar period the complex was only convent of the “Nuns of Baby Jesus”, after became school building until 2005. The ‘east wing of the’ building (ex dormitory of the nuns) has been completely restored with a financing done by the Lazio region. The complex includes:
Bedrooms, Community bathrooms, Community kitchen, Church, Classrooms, Common areas, Warehouses, Lower garden (190 s / m),
Offices, Theater, Chapel, Balconies, Exhibition hall (Roman archaeological elements), Basements, Upper garden (910 s / m )
Historical complex B.G.:
views of the exterior facades
Historical complex B.G.:
Panoramic view
Historical complex B.G.:
inside views
Proposta di distribuzione interna complesso “Bambin Gesù” Palestrina -RomaFelicita Polucci Architetto & Patrizio Rossi Designer -studio Flyfour- Vicenza
PROPOSTA DISTRIBUZIONE INTERNA : COMPLESSO “BAMBIN GESU’”
APPARTAMENTI SEMINTERRATO -2 1app.
92mq
SEMINTERRATO -1 2app. 4app.
92mq 107mq (80mq+19,50mq+7,50mq)
PIANO TERRA 3/5app.* . TOT.
104mq (80mq+11,00mq+5,50mq+7,50mq) 395mq ABITABILI + *possibilità di un 5°appartamento
HOTEL PIANO TERRA
n.5 matrimoniali
PIANO INTERMEDIO
n.5 doppie
n.2 matrimoniali
PIANO PRIMO
n.1 doppia*
n.1 singola
PIANO SECONDO
n.3 doppie
n.4 singole+n.1 tripla n.1 singola
PIANO TERZO TOT.
n.23 stanze
*n.1 suite
RESIDENZA PER ANZIANI PIANO TERRA
n.4 matrimoniali
PIANO PRIMO
n.1 doppia
n.3 singole
PIANO SECONDO
n.4 doppie
n.2 singole
PIANO TERZO
n.5 doppie*
TOT.
n.26 stanze
n.3 matrimoniali
n.3 singole*+n.1 tripla
H.C.B.G.:
interior suggestions for hotel & Spa
H.C.B.G.:
interior suggestions for hotel & Spa
Flyfour studio (Vicenza) Italy Felicita Polucci Architetto Patrizio Locatelli Rossi Designer Via Pigafetta, 7 -Vicenza- Italy
Vicenza febbraio 2015