The church of the Corpus Domini is a church in the historic centre of Forlì, on the same square as the Duomo; it is the main church of the monastery of the same name and, by an underground passage, is linked to the church of the Addolorata, on the other side of via Maroncelli.
What to see
On the site there stood perhaps a palace of the Berengari family, or buildings inhabited by the Ordelaffi; certainly there was a hospital run by the lay company of the Battuti Neri, who by a deed of 6 May 1337 were allowed to officiate in a church belonging to them. In 1571 a women's confraternity is also recorded, the Convertite di Santa Maria Maddalena, created to take in girls «fallen into sin»; their presence in Forlì is traced to the preaching of Saint Bernardino of Siena. In 1781 the complex was badly damaged by an earthquake and rebuilt on the site of the old hospital, through the interest of the Jesuit Andrea Michelini, with the Ticino architect Carlo Sintini; the church can be considered complete in 1787, and with the reform of 1788 the nuns took the name Monache del Corpus Domini, joining the Poor Clares. In 1797, with the Napoleonic invasion, the monastery escaped suppression thanks to a legal quibble, since it was recorded as Michelini's private property.
The exterior is of brick, with a gabled façade decorated with classical elements: a projecting pediment with a round window, a Doric frieze of metopes and triglyphs, paired pilasters and a marble portal with lunette and the dedication to the Body of Christ. The bell tower, built into the structure, ends in an octagonal lantern and is the twin of that of the Addolorata. The interior is a single nave, with complex forms determined by the projections that mark out the different spaces and with very flattened Ionic capitals; the walls are stuccoed in yellow and white. On the altar of fine marbles is Filippo Pedrini's altarpiece with Christ and the symbols of the Eucharist; in the chapels are three paintings by Gaetano Gandolfi and a small Madonna di Germania, a chestnut-wood statue of Saxon workmanship dating from the 13th century.
Visiting
The Urbanist Poor Clares stayed in the complex until 2021, when, few in number, they moved away and closed the monastery to worship, though they remain its owners: access and hours of the church should therefore be checked before visiting.
Our editors' tip
From the back of the nave look at the two windows of the presbytery: they let you glimpse the choir reserved for the cloistered nuns, and remind you that for centuries this church was the visible part of a monastery that stayed hidden behind it.
