MONZA - Royal Expiatory Chapel

The Expiatory Chapel is the memorial that the widowed Queen Margherita of Savoy and the King of Italy Vittorio Emanuele III wanted to erect in Monza to commemorate the regicide of Umberto I. On the evening of July 29, 1900, at 10:00 p.m., the King of Italy had attended a gymnastics competition in Monza. At 10:45 p.m., as soon as he got back into his carriage, Umberto I was hit by several gunshots fired by the anarchist Gaetano Bresci. On the occasion of the first funeral of Umberto I in Monza, an old man and a boy had placed a simple wooden cross on the site of the assassination and had gathered there to pray; shortly, other people had joined, making the place sacred "out of popular sentiment". Later, a more solid cross was placed, after which Queen Margherita established that an "expiatory chapel" should be erected on that spot in memory of the killing of her husband. The project was commissioned by Vittorio Emanuele III of Savoy to the architect Giuseppe Sacconi, who had already designed the Vittoriano in Rome. The monument has a front surrounded by a wrought iron gate; beyond the gate, in the middle of a rectangle enclosed by a wall covered in grey mosaic, on a high stepped base stands a platform enclosed by bronze barriers; on it rises a massive polygonal base containing the chapel and on which rests the large stele in Oggiono stone bearing two translucent Latin crosses in alabaster from a Roman quarry in Algeria; the whole reaches a height of 35 metres. At the foot of the stele is the bronze group by Lodovico Pogliaghi representing the Pietà. At the top is an urn surmounted by a cushion on which are placed the sceptre, the Collar of the Annunziata and the crown of Savoy. The interior of the temple, with a circular plan, is covered with Byzantine-inspired mosaics and marbles of various colors and origins. Various mosaic subjects on cartoons by Emilio Retrosi made by Antonio Castaman depict, in the sails, angels with the symbols of the Passion of Christ and, in the roundels, saints and blesseds of the House of Savoy.
From the outside you can access the underlying crypt, with a Greek cross plan, covered with polychrome marbles and bronzes. The vaults are covered with mosaics reproducing a starry sky. At the intersection of the four arms of the crypt there is a black marble cippus engraved with the date of July 29, 1900 and which marks the exact point of the assassination.
Wikipedia source: it.wikipedia.o...
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