Church of Suffrage, Carrara
Recently used mainly for exhibitions and concerts, the church has again found its sacred purpose
The Chiesa del Suffragio, begun in 1688 as a project attributed to Innocenzo Bergamini and reworked in the 1800s, stands right in the historic centre of Carrara, at the end of Via del Plebiscito.
Thanks to seventeenth-century modifications made in accordance with the Council of Trent, the church is the only one in Carrara to be built on the plan of a Latin cross and to have a slate-tiled central dome, which gathers light and shines it all around the inside of the building. It was built in a place which marked the (probably fortified) corner of the wall just before the hillside of Monterosso.
The church’s portal is richly decorated by the workshop of Carlo Finelli, with images of souls freed from Purgatory by the intercession of the Virgin Mary. Inside there is a single nave. The Baroque tendency to exalt and dramatize is evident here in the wide use of different marbles, especially Bianco Statuario, Fior di Pesco, Breccia Medicea and Portoro Buono, which creates an unquestionable, spectacular effect.
Since restoration in the 1990s the church has been used for exhibitions and concerts, and today is part of Orthodox Church.
