San Pietro is a Roman Catholic church in central Piacenza, Emilia Romagna, Italy. The church was built over the site of an ancient church titled San Pietro in Foro (St Peter of the Roman Forum).
History A church was present at the site, which included the old Roman forum by 809, but it was rebuilt after a fire in 1174. In about 1583, Duke Ranuccio I Farnese had invited the Jesuits into the duchy, and ceded them the church. They razed the ancient structure and replaced it with the present church with construction spanning from 1585 and 1587. The belltower dates to the 17th century. In 1607, the Jesuits founded a seminary at this site. However, in 1768 the order was expelled from the duchy.Papal suppression of the Jesuit order occurred in 1773. While the Jesuits returned some decades after the Napoleonic wars, they remained briefly until 1848 at the church of San Pietro. Since 1893, San Pietro was made a parish church. In the early decades of the 1900 the church underwent further restoration work, including of the present façade.
The adjacent Palazzo del Collegio dei Gesuiti was completed in 1593,Nuovissima guida della città di Piacenza con alquanti cenni topografici, statistici, e storici, by Tipografia Domenico Tagliaferri, Piazza de' Cavalli, #55, Piacenza (1842); Page 154-155. and now houses the Biblioteca Comunale Passerini Landi.Biblioteca Passerini Landi, official site with map. In 1840s, the library was said to house thousands of volumes of sacred and profane books, as well as private letters and manuscripts.composta di presso a 10 mila volumi di scelte opere di scienz sacre e profane, di lettere, fra cui alquante edizione del 400, molte Aldine, alquante Elzeviriane, Maurine e qualche manoscritto, Nuovissima guida, page 158.
Interior In the chancel there are frescoes by Roberto de Longe and a baroque main altar derives from a chapel of the cathedral .
In the guide of 1842, the church is said to contain: First chapel on right St Aloysius Gonzaga and St Joseph and Child Jesus: altarpieces by Giovanni Battista TagliasacchiNuovissima guida, pages 156. San Francis di Girolamo 1841 copy of painting originally by Francesco Podesti Second chapel on right St Francis Xavier by Clemente Ruta Chapel on right accessed below choir Statue of Santa Filomena by Graziani St Ursula by Marcantonio Franceschini St Jerome, copy of work by Guercino Saints Peter and Paul being led to Martyrdom by Ercole Graziani the Younger Organ (1847) by brothers Serassi of Bergamo Chapel of St Ignatius of Loyola St Ignatius by Tagliasacchi Sacred Heart of Christ, a sculpture by Gaspare Landi Chapel of St Stanislaus Kostka St Stanislaus by Giovanni Gioseffo dal Sole Chapel of the Congregation Annunciation copy by school of Guido Reni Relics of San Regius Martyr Archangel Raphael and Tobias by Giovanni Bottani
An inventory from the 1840s, noted that the church contained an altarpieces of St Aloysius Gonzaga and St Joseph with child Jesus in his arms by Giovanni Battista Tagliasacchi.Nuovissima guida, pages 156. There was a Deposition by Giovanni Rubini.Piacenza ne'suoi monumenti, by Leopoldo Cerri, page 28. The church had a portrait of Paolo Casati, a polymath jesuit.Nuovissima guida, pages 156-158. A painting in the church of St Ferdinand of Spain attributed to Antonia di Borbone, daughter of Duke Don Ferdinando.L. Cerri, Guida, page 28.
See also List of Jesuit sites
Notes
Sources La patria; geografia dell' Italia: Provincia di Parma e Piacenza, by Gustavo Chiesi, Torino, 1902, page 172. Comune Piacenza entry on church.