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THE BASILICA OF SANTA CRISTINA.
The Basilica of Santa Cristina is an architectural
complex consisting of four distinct parts: the
small underground basilica known as Grotto of Santa Cristina
with the catacombs, the three-aisled Romanesque building
erected on the site of her grave.
In the early 16th century, a fine terracotta statue was
set on the place where the body of the Saint is buried.
Attributed to Benedetto Buglioni, it shows
the young martyr sleeping the sleep of death.
Popular tradition has it that Cristina, daughter of the
prefect Urbano, was converted to the Christian faith against
her father's will.
She was submitted to cruel tortures
from which she always came out unharmed, glorifying God.
After Urbano's death, his successors Dione and Giulano kept
tormenting Cristina hoping to get her to abjure,
but she continued to come through unharmed, until finally
an arrow passed through her heart on the 24th of July of
an unspecified year in the reign of Diocletian.
The corridors of the catacombs branch out from the underground
basilica.
Part of this haunting early Christian necropolis was destroyed
when the small basilica church was built.
Like all cemeteries in antiquity, it stood right outside
the urban area, near a road that seems to have been the
old Via Cassia.
The many inscriptions in the catacombs, ranging from simple
graffiti on plaster to verse and prose and paintings,
are evidence that both the humble classes and die higher
social classes had embraced Christianity.
Our necropolis dates from die last years of die 3rd to the
first decade of the 5th century.
The Altar known as of the Miracle is at the center of the
Grotto of Santa Cristina.
It incorporates the stone on which, according to a devoted
tradition, the Saint left the imprint of her feet.
The pyramidal Ciborium, dating to the 8th
century, is supported by four columns in pink marble, with
capitals in Corinthian style.
The stone balustrade that surrounds the
altar dates to the middle of the 16th century.
The Altar of the Miracle or of the Four Columns is connected
to die Eucharistic Miracle mat took place in 1263 when,
according to tradition, a Bohemian priest tormented by doubts
as to the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist, went
in pilgrimage to Rome.
Pausing in Bolsena, he said mass on the tomb of Saint Cristina.
It seems that at the moment of consecration, drops of blood
issued forth from the host the unbelieving priest
was holding, staining the altar cloth or corporal and some
of the stones in the floor.
These stones are now in the Baroque Chapel known as of the
Miracle while the corporal is in the Cathedral of Orvieto.
In the adjacent Chapel of San Michele is
a ceramic altaipiece depicting the Crucifixion (1496) attributed
to Benedetto Buglioni.
The central part of the architectural complex of the basilica
dates to the year 1078 and was traditionally
built by Matilde of Caiiossa and Pope Gregory VII on an
earlier religious building.
The Latin-cross construction has a nave and two aisles with
a truss roof.
The original Romanesque style is evident
in the interior with its bare simplicity and rude convex
columns, in part from Roman buildings.
Behind the high altar is a fine pofyptych by Sano di Pietro
(1406-1481).
The Chapel known as of Santa Lucia contains a terracotta
bust attributed to Benedetto Buglioni and fine frescoes
(late 15th century), by Domenico di Giovanni De Ferrariis
da Mondovì (1498).
After being moved here and there and carefully restored,
the ceramic Ciborium, a fine piece by the Florentine
sculptor Benedetto Buglioni, has found its final
and appropriate place in the Chapel of the SS. Sacramento.
Of particular artistic interest are the
three eighteenth-century altarpieces, by Francesco
Trevisani, Sebastiano Conca and Andrea Casali.
The facade of die Romanesque church dates
to die end of the 15th century and was built for Cardinal
Giovanni de' Medici, the future Leo X.
The decorated pilaster strips that divide
the facade into three parts are crossed by a trapezoidal
cornice.
The central portal of die church and diat of die Chapel
of San Leonardo, to the right of the church itself, are
surmounted by lunettes widi elegant terracottas, again by
die Florentine Benedetto Buglioni.
The bell tower (13th cent.) rises, slender and elegant,
with three tiers of two-light openings.
The new chapel del Miracolo, in remembrance of
the Eu-charistic Miracle, was built at the end of the 17th
century in the area of the large courtyard on "which
the facade of the Grotto of Santa Cristina originally faced.
Hie interior of die chapel, round in plan, is in an imposing
Baroque style.
The marble stones stained with the blood
from the host are on the high altar.
The fine painting of the Miracle of Bolsena
is by Francesco Trevisani (18th century).
The neoclassic facade of the chapel dates to 1863.
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BOLSENA 
