GATTAPONE

The Collegio di Spagna is a college for Spanish students at the University of Bologna, which has been functioning since the 14th century. The college was founded in 1364 by the Cardinal Gil Alvarez De Albornoz (1310-1367) and built in 1365-70. It was the model for the colleges founded at the University of Salamanca, starting in the late 14th century and at other Spanish universities in the following centuries.

The military architecture of the later fourteenth century is dominated by the emergence of a new type of fortified palace or palatial fortress. It consists of an isolated, more or less compact symmetrical block, enclosing a rectangular courtyard and reinforced by corner towers. In flat country it was normally surrounded by a moat; in the hills a stepped-up platform provided a preliminary obstacle. It is this basic pattern which is developed in innumerable fifteenth-century castles throughout North and Central Italy.

The major fortress, dominating the town of Spoleto, was carried out for Cardinal Albornoz by Gattapone, who is documented as working on it intermittently from 1362 to 1370. Apart from a distant outer circle of wall, it constitutes a completely regular, six-towered, double rectangle. The 230 m long and 80 m high Ponte delle Torri carries water to the castle and the upper town. Its gently pointed arches are a monument to later-fourteenth-century civil engineering. Gattapone’s possible connection with the aqueduct is not clear.

The military architecture of the later fourteenth century is dominated by the emergence of a new type of fortified palace or palatial fortress. It consists of an isolated, more or less compact symmetrical block, enclosing a rectangular courtyard and reinforced by corner towers. In flat country it was normally surrounded by a moat; in the hills a stepped-up platform provided a preliminary obstacle. It is this basic pattern which is developed in innumerable fifteenth-century castles throughout North and Central Italy.

The major fortress, dominating the town of Spoleto, was carried out for Cardinal Albornoz by Gattapone, who is documented as working on it intermittently from 1362 to 1370. Apart from a distant outer circle of wall, it constitutes a completely regular, six-towered, double rectangle. The 230 m long and 80 m high Ponte delle Torri carries water to the castle and the upper town. Its gently pointed arches are a monument to later-fourteenth-century civil engineering. Gattapone’s possible connection with the aqueduct is not clear.

The photo shows a view of the Rocca and the aqueduct.

The Collegio di Spagna is a college for Spanish students at the University of Bologna, which has been functioning since the 14th century. The college was founded in 1364 by the Cardinal Gil Alvarez De Albornoz (1310-1367) and built in 1365-70. It was the model for the colleges founded at the University of Salamanca, starting in the late 14th century and at other Spanish universities in the following centuries.

Both severity and sophistication are characteristic of Matteo Gattapone’s work for Cardinal Albornoz in the Collegio di Spagna. The building was begun and substantially completed between 1365 and 1370, while Gattapone was also working on the Rocca at Spoleto. The octagonal columns and two-tiered arches of the loggia at Bologna repeat the Umbrian forms, but with a difference. There is added weight and gravity in the lower arcades. More striking still, the height of the upper story is drastically reduced. The individual forms are only minimally altered, and the reduction is mainly achieved by halving the height of the supporting columns. The unbroken horizontality of the roof-line is given positive architectural force by the abrupt emergence of the fa�ade and bell screen of the aisleless, vaulted Chapel of San Clemente. The forms of the cortile give no warning of the building that erupts above and behind them.

The photo shows the courtyard in front of the Chapel of San Clemente.

The Collegio di Spagna is a college for Spanish students at the University of Bologna, which has been functioning since the 14th century. The college was founded in 1364 by the Cardinal Gil Alvarez De Albornoz (1310-1367) and built in 1365-70. It was the model for the colleges founded at the University of Salamanca, starting in the late 14th century and at other Spanish universities in the following centuries.

Both severity and sophistication are characteristic of Matteo Gattapone’s work for Cardinal Albornoz in the Collegio di Spagna. The building was begun and substantially completed between 1365 and 1370, while Gattapone was also working on the Rocca at Spoleto. The octagonal columns and two-tiered arches of the loggia at Bologna repeat the Umbrian forms, but with a difference. There is added weight and gravity in the lower arcades. More striking still, the height of the upper story is drastically reduced. The individual forms are only minimally altered, and the reduction is mainly achieved by halving the height of the supporting columns. The unbroken horizontality of the roof-line is given positive architectural force by the abrupt emergence of the fa�ade and bell screen of the aisleless, vaulted Chapel of San Clemente. The forms of the cortile give no warning of the building that erupts above and behind them.

The photo shows the courtyard in front of the Chapel of San Clemente.