Address: Via Cairoli
A small 1800’s temple built by G. D. Bragaldi, writer and politician.
Additional notes: The Bragaldi Oratory was erected by Giovanni Damasceno Bragaldi, a writer and politician, in the memory of his son Vincenzo Vittorio, who died at the age of 17 on the 27th May 1817. Bragaldi owned a villa in the country (demolished at the beginning of the1900’s) called the Pantalupa and had the small temple built in its vicinity in an estate at the time called Calamello. Around the temple, a beautiful park was created where the politician-writer often went to visit the tomb of his son. Outside the oratory presents itself in neo-classical style, with Corinthian columns with upper Doric capitals, the interior in imperial style. Designed by architect Filippo Antolini and built by the Gaetano and Antonio Petroncini brothers of Faenza, famous maestros in masonry. The stucco decorations inside are by Ballanti (i Graziani) of Faenza. The façade, facing south, is made up of an atrium supported by two columns. Inside above the door there is the coat of arms of the Bragaldi. The small temple is dedicated to S. Giuseppe and measures 7.50×4 metres. Equally vast is the cemetery, built in crypt style. Three thousand escudos were spent for its construction. It was open for worship on the 15th November 1822, the day of the fifty-ninth birthday of G. D. Bragaldi. The bodies of Vincenzo Vittorio Bragaldi and of Anna Rossetti, his mother, were removed from the public cemetery on the 27th January 1826 and taken to the crypt of the small temple with the permission of Cardinal Antonio Rusconi. Three years later, Giovanni Damasceno Bragaldi was buried there, who died on the 17th February 1829 at the age of 65.During the 1920’s the Bragaldi oratory, today part of the park of villa Centonara , was restored by N. D. Maddalena Gottarelli, who dedicated the temple to the burial ofher ancestors and father.
