Saint Giulia Church

VENERABILE ARCICONFRATERNITA DEL SS. SACRAMENTO E DI S. GIULIA PATRONA DI LIVORNO

Saint Giulia Church

The Church, built in 1602, presents a sober but elegant external structure. The main front is enriched by large, rectangular tiles and at one time may have been covered with marble. Next to each side of the main portal, surmounted by the Confraternity’s coat of arms, are two large niches which once contained the statues of Saint Pietro and Saint Paolo. These statues were lost during the last world war. On the right side of the entrance hall there is a painting by an unknown artist and unestablished age which represents “Christ on the cross” and a memorial tablet for the fellow citizens who died for their country. In front of it there is a picture of the Madonna di Montenero, while on the left is a cave-shaped chapel dedicated to the Madonna di Lourdes.
	From this chapel a short corridor starts. On the left wall of this corridor there is a plaster bas-relief representing Santa Teresa del Bambin Gesù, Sant’Antonio e Santa Rita, a work by G. Guiggi (1965), while, on the right side, there is a painting representing the martyrdon of Saint Giulia, a work by an anonymous author from the first half of the 17^th century. Going on there is the photographic reproduction of the “Trionfo dell’Eucarestia” by G.M. Terreni. The original is kept in the museum. Coming back to the entrance hall of the church and moving toward the main door, there is a one-naved hall and, over the main door, the Choir. The walls of the hall are covered with wooden pews, assigned to the members of the Magistracy of the Confraternity. The Church is lighted by six large windows, framed by white marble, spaced out by pilasters with capitals of Corinthian style. The ceiling is a coffered one, adorned with gilted stuccos and geometrical drawings.
The new altar, placed in 2003, is formed by a marble table on a stone of the Sinai. Over the old altar (1600) there is a monumental reliquary of Saint Giulia in copper foil, partially gilded and silver plated, embossed and chiselled by the silversmiths Leonardi and Pieralli. The reliquary is composed of two parts: a basement representing the fortress, symbol of Livorno (surmounted by a case containing a fragment of the bone of the skull and a phalanx of a finger of the martyr) and a silver statue of the Saint, represented with a tunic and a draped mantle around her body.	.

	On the wall back the altar there is a photographic reproduction of the painting representing Saint Giulia. The original is kept in the museum.

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