Place of Worship
TEMPIO DI LEON BATTISTA ALBERTI
Mantua (MN)
included The history of the church of San Sebastiano, built by Leon Battista Alberti on commission of Marquis Ludovico II Gonzaga from 1460 onwards, is decidedly complex and uncertain, so much so that we have no certainties as to its actual use. One hypothesis is that it was intended to become a family tomb, but this choice was never made.
Ten years before his last masterpiece, the basilica of Sant'Andrea, Leon Battista Alberti designed this church in Mantua, commissioned by Marquis Ludovico II Gonzaga for the Lateran Canons. The church is one of the cornerstones of the early Renaissance, admirable in its façade (which combines classical forms with modern solutions such as the crypt, open to the outside, and the original five windows of the vestibule, which was accessed from the side loggia) and in the polished, mighty Greek-cross interior. The Temple, used as a Famedio dei Caduti per la Patria (Memorial for the Fallen for the Homeland), houses an urn containing the remains of several Martyrs of Belfiore.
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