Sant'Erasmo

Sant'Erasmo is a Roman Catholic church in Castel Goffredo, in the Province of Mantua, Lombardy, Italy. It serves as the parish church (prepositurale) of the town and holds significant art-historical importance for its collection of works spanning from the fifteenth to the eighteenth centuries, including paintings by Giuseppe Bazzani and Felice Riccio, and its Renaissance and Baroque architectural history tied to the Gonzaga marquises of Mantua.

A church dedicated to Erasmus of Formiae existed in Castel Goffredo before 1288, located within the perimeter of Castelvecchio (Castellum vetus), the old fortified settlement. This earlier structure was demolished in 1516 to make room for a garden of Prince Aloisio Gonzaga. The present church was begun in the second half of the fifteenth century as the village expanded beyond Castelvecchio's walls. In 1516 the presbytery and a new dome were added. During the marquisate of Aloisio Gonzaga, two side chapels were added, and he bequeathed one hundred crowns for further work. Cardinal Carlo Borromeo visited in 1540 and ordered modifications and completion of the interior. The dome collapsed between 1588 and 1590, prompting reconstruction by Bernardino Facciotto, architect to Duke Guglielmo Gonzaga of Mantua, commissioned by Marquis Alfonso Gonzaga, though some sources suggest his son Girolamo may have been involved; the municipality also contributed funds. The facade was embellished with five marble pyramids. The original terracotta floor was redone in 1606 at municipal expense, and the dome was covered in copper in 1638. Between 1737 and 1750, Don Giacinto Tosani sponsored the present red and white marble checkerboard pavement and a carved wooden pulpit. On 3 January 1593, Rodolfo Gonzaga, lord of Castel Goffredo, was assassinated at the main door of the church by Michele Volpetti as he went to mass with his wife Elena and daughter Cinzia.

The church contains significant artworks from the sixteenth through eighteenth centuries, representing Lombard, Mantuan, and broader north Italian schools. The interior is laid out as a Latin cross with three nave bays vaulted with groin vaults, supported by Botticino marble columns, and seven chapels. The collection includes large-scale Baroque canvases, altarpieces, frescoes, polychrome wood sculpture, marble sculpture, and decorative arts. Particular strengths lie in works connected to the Gonzaga court and regional artists such as Giuseppe Bazzani, Giuseppe Fali, and Felice Riccio, as well as liturgical furnishings including an important pipe organ and ornate marble altars.

Among the most significant works are two large Baroque canvases by the Brescian painter Giuseppe Fali in the presbytery: Moses Saved from the Waters and Moses Striking the Rock. Fali also painted the Twelve Apostles in the central nave. The Mantuan painter Giuseppe Bazzani is represented by The Souls in Purgatory. The main altar features a marble gradinata and balustrade constructed in 1612, with the high altar itself designed by Andrea Gamba of Rezzato in polychrome marbles and hardstones. Behind it stands a finely worked wooden choir dated 1750. To the left of the main altar is the historic Costanzo Antegnati pipe organ, built in 1595 by Caterina Gonzaga, daughter of Alfonso Gonzaga. The Chapel of the Crucifix contains a venerated fifteenth-century polychrome wooden crucifix, enclosed by an eighteenth-century polychrome marble balustrade by Domenico Corbarelli. Two marble sculptures of Adoring Angels by Alessandro Calegari flank the tabernacle altar, dated 1741. Other notable works include the Martyrdom of Saint Erasmus (1717) by Gasparino di Volongo (or Francesco Gasapino da Volongo); an altarpiece of the Virgin and Saints by an unknown seventeenth-century painter; Saint Francis Receiving the Stigmata, attributed to Felice Brusasorzi of the Veronese school; The Last Supper in the right transept, of the Mantuan Mannerist school; a Martyrdom of Saint Stephen from the late sixteenth-century Mantuan school; a tondo of Tobit and the Angel by Bartolomeo Dall'Acqua (eighteenth century); and a seventeenth-century canvas of Saint Barbara above the central entrance door. The Baptistery Chapel contains sixteenth-century frescoes that have been included in I Luoghi del Cuore, an initiative of FAI (Fondo Ambiente Italiano). The church complex also houses the New Sacristy with original seventeenth-century furnishings, and the Old Sacristy, restored in 2020, which contains the Treasure of Sant'Erasmo with its precious reliquaries.

The church occupies the east side of Piazza Mazzini in Castel Goffredo, positioned asymmetrically relative to the piazza's axis. Its Renaissance facade on two orders features pilasters and a pediment, decorated with three large white marble portals. The dome is hemispherical with a tiburio (lantern drum). The facade design closely resembles that of Santa Maria dell'Orto in Rome, attributed to Vignola. The exterior bears Aloisio Gonzaga's epigraphic inscriptions, originally from the demolished church of Santa Maria del Consorzio, which were reset into the church's outer wall. To one side of the presbytery are the sacristy and other rooms; to the other side stands the bell tower.

Sant'Erasmo is located in Castel Goffredo, Province of Mantua, Lombardy, Italy, on the east side of Piazza Mazzini. It functions as the parish church of the town, within the Diocese of Mantua and the vicariate foraneo of San Carlo Borromeo. The church continues to host the principal religious functions of the city. The website http://www.mastcastelgoffredo.it/museo/sagrestia/ provides further information.