Desecrating the Memory of the Sacred: the Mignon Case

Abstract

The case study is the de-consecrated medieval Church of San Pietro in Ferrara dating from the 10th century. Having “lost its dedication” during the Napoleonic invasion, it was then reused as a warehouse, a gym, a popular space of cruising, since the 1912 as a movie theatre, and after the 1980s as a porno movie theatre: the “Mignon. Cinema a luci rosse”. Can a space with sacred origins, vocations and foundations be so dramatically manipulated to be able to “sustain” any kind of violations of “its” memory? The memory of the sacred seems to have contaminated the domain of the “sordid”, creating a curious hybrid that deserves attention. While posing problems about the limits in the reuse of a deconsecrated church, the Mignon case points toward some unprejudiced and risky possible experimentations.

Keywords

• Consecration
• Desecration
• Deconsecration
• Sacrlege
• Profanation