Cappella Reale Espiatoria
Museum | Monza | Lombardia | Italy
The Cappella Reale Espiatoria in Monza is a significant monument that commemorates the assassination of King Umberto I on July 29, 1900. The king was shot by the anarchist Gaetano Bresci during a sporting event in Monza. Umberto I's son, King Vittorio Emanuele III, commissioned the architect Giuseppe Sacconi, who also designed the Altare della Patria in Rome, to build a memorial at this site. After Sacconi's death in 1905, his student Guido Cirilli completed the project, and the chapel was inaugurated on July 29, 1910, the tenth anniversary of the assassination.
The chapel is located in a spacious park and is surrounded by an elaborately designed iron fence designed by Alessandro Mazzucotelli. In the background, there is a monumental exedra covered with a mosaic of two-tone pebbles. The monument consists of a crypt and a chapel, dominated by a 35-meter high stele made of Oggiono stone. At the base of the stele, there is a bronze Pietà by the sculptor Ludovico Pogliaghi. At the top of the stele rests a bronze cushion, on which royal symbols such as a scepter, the Collare dell'Annunziata, and the crown of Savoy are placed.
Inside the chapel, the crypt is laid out in the shape of a Greek cross and fully decorated with valuable mosaics depicting a starry sky and the coat of arms of the Savoy family. In the center of the crypt, a black marble base marks the exact point of the assassination. The chapel itself is adorned with Byzantine-inspired mosaics depicting angels as well as portraits of saints and blessed from the Savoy dynasty. The floor is covered with ancient, colored marbles.
The Cappella Reale Espiatoria is not only a place of remembrance for a tragic event in Italian history, but also a masterpiece of architecture and art that highlights the cultural significance of the Lombardy region.
