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TheChiesa dei Domenicani (German:Dominikanerkirche) is a medieval church inBolzano/Bozen,South Tyrol, northernItaly.
The church, one of the earliest examples ofGothic architecture in Tyrol, was founded by theDominicans after their arrival, in a location that was then outside the city's walls. The construction ended in 1272 but was expanded in the following century. The quarter which originated from the monks' church and monastery became known asNeustadt ("New City"); their cultivated lands were nationalized by theFascist regime in 1930s. The church was damaged by bombs duringWorld War II.
The church has a single hall two rows of octagonal pillars. Thepresbytery, separated a five-span bridge, was rebuilt inBaroque style in the 18th century; in 1458–1468 the church and the cloister received new vaults in Gothic style. The four side chapels, dating from the 14th century, were damaged in World War II. The interior is home to several frescoes, including aMadonna and Saints by Haus Stotzinger fromUlm (1404), aMadonna Enthroned by a Veronese school artist (1379) andFour Saints by an artist fromMartino da Verona's school (1400). The Chapel of St. John, finally, houses a fresco cycle by aGiottoesque painter, including a scene with one of theFour Horsemen of the Apocalypse and, below, the sinners.
At the end of the apse isThe Vision of Soriano, an altarpiece byGuercino (1655) showing a vision by Lorenzo da Grotteria, a Dominican lay brother in the monastery atSoriano Calabro on the night of 15 September 1530, in which he saw theVirgin Mary,Mary Magdalene andCatherine of Alexandria, who at the end of the vision left in his hands a painting of his order's founderSaint Dominic holding a book and a lily, respectively symbolising the learning and purity of the order's members. With three surviving preparatory sketches for it (two in theNational Gallery of Ireland and the third in a private collection inStuttgart), Guercino's painting was commissioned by the town's Mercantile Magistrate via consul Bernardino Borno of Verona and put in place a year later. It was taken to the parish church when the monastery was suppressed in 1785, but was returned to the Dominicans' former monastery church in 1970.
The cloister, first mentioned in a 1308 document, has wall paintings depicting the Life of Jesus and Mary, executed byFriedrich Pacher around 1496. Other Giottoesque frescoes from the 14th century can be seen in the St. Caterine Chapel which is accessed through the cloister.
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