Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 1.djvu/324

ALESSI without any detriment to the rights of the chapter for the future. It was suppressed in 1213, and united to Acqui; re-established, 1240, and reunited to Acqui, 1405; suppressed. 1803, and re-established as independent in 1817. It was vacant from 1854 to 1867. There are 116,000 Catholics; 61 parishes, 143 secular priests, and 188 churches and chapels.

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Alessi, a famous Italian architect, b. 1500; d. 1572. He showed an inclination for mathematics and literature at a very early age, and afterwards studied drawing for civil and military architecture, under the direction of Giambattista Caporali, a Perugian architect and painter. At Rome he became a friend of Michael Angelo. He completed the fortress of Perugia, begun by Sangallo, built an apartment in it for the governor of the castle, and erected a number of palaces, regarded as the finest in the city. He resided in Genoa a number of years, engaged in the erection of various edifices, the laying-out of streets, and the restoration of the walls of the city. On the Carignano Hill he built the church of the Madonna. He repaired, restored, and embellished the cathedral and made designs for its tribune, choir, and cupola. His abilities were most conspicuous in his design for the harbour. He erected therein a large gateway, flanked by rustic columns, and adorned the sea-front with a Doric portico, ingeniously defended by balustrades. This fortress-like work protected the city from within and without and had a spacious square for the military in the interior. He also extended the mole more than 600 paces into the sea, and left a number of designs and models which have been at various times executed by the rich nobles of that city. These and similar splendid edifices have obtained for Genoa the title of La Superba (The Proud). Alessi executed many works at Ferrara. At Bologna he erected the great gate of the Palazzo Publico. He finished the palace of the Institute according to the design of Pellegrino Tibaldi, and made plans for the façade of San Petronio. At Milan he built the church of San Vittore, the whimsical auditorium del Cambio, and the facade of San Celso, and greatly distinguished himself by the erection of the magnificent palace of Tommaso Marini, Duke of Torre Nuova. He also designed edifices in Naples and Sicily, France, Germany, and Flanders. The King of Spain sent for him to execute some buildings, which, however, are not known, and after some period of time permitted him to return to Perugia, laden with riches and honours. He was received by his fellow-citizens with the most flattering expressions of regard, was admitted into the Scuola di Commerzio; and was sent to Pope Pius V on a commission involving public interest. On his return to his own country he was requested by Cardinal Odoardo Farnese to submit a design for the facade of the Gesù at Rome, so expensive, that it was never executed. For the Duke della Corgna he built the stately palace of Castiglione on the Lake of Perugia, and for the Cardinal, brother of the Duke, he erected another on a hill a few miles from the city. In conjunction with Giulio Danti, a Perugian architect, he was employed in the erection of the church on the Madonna degli Angeli, near Assisi, built after the design of Vignola. Finally, Alessi submitted to the Spanish Court a design for the monastery and church of the Escorial in Spain. It was considered the best among plans submitted in a general competition by all the architects of Europe, and he was requested to execute it, but age and indisposition prevented him. Alessi was learned, agreeable in conversation, and capable of negotiating the most important affairs.

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Alessio (Lissus, Alexiensis),, in European Turkey, since 1886 suffragan of Scutari. It is one of the principal seaports of Albania, is favourably located near the mouth of the Drin, was founded by Dionysius of Syracuse, and was an important and beautiful city in the time of Diodorus Siculus. It is now known as Alise, Lesch, Eschenderari, or Mrtav. Like all the cities of Albania, it frequently changed masters in the Middle Ages until the Venetians took possession of it in 1386. It still belonged to them when Skanderbeg died, but shortly afterwards it fell into the hands of the Turks. In 1501 the inhabitants again returned to the Venetian domination, but in the year 1506 Sultan Bajazet obtained the restitution of the city, after it had been evacuated and deprived of its ramparts. To-day it is a poor straggling hamlet of about 2,000 people, one-third of whom are Catholics. In it, however, the mountaineers hold a weekly bazaar where very large transactions take place. The Acrolissus or citadel is interesting for the well preserved Roman cisterns and medieval arches it still holds. The first known Bishop of Alessio is Valens, who attended the Council of Sardica in 340. It does not figure prominently in ecclesiastical history until the sixth century, when it is mentioned as a see in the correspondence of St. Gregory the Great (590–604). Since the end of the fourteenth century, when it came under Venetian rule, it has had again a series of Latin bishops.

Alessio had formerly five churches. The cathedral was dedicated to St. Nicholas and once held the mortal remains of the patriot George Castriota, the immortal Skanderbeg, who died in 1467. Local tradition relates that when the Turks took the town they opened his grave and made amulets of his bones, believing that these would confer indomitable bravery on the wearer. Transformed into a mosque, the cathedral was abandoned by the Ottomans after three dervishes had successively committed suicide from one of its towers. Two other churches dedicated to St. George and to St. Sebastian still survive as mosques. The population is mostly Catholic (about 14,000), attended by fifteen secular priests. The present bishop, elected 24 May, 1870, is Monsignor Francis Malczyinski, an alumnus of the Propaganda. He resides at Calmeti, a little distance from Alessio.

At the summit of a group of rocky hills, on the west bank of the Drin, facing the town, are the church and convent of St. Anthony of Padua under the care of the Franciscan friars, a last remnant of the thirty convents they once possessed in Albania. The site is said to have been chosen by the saint himself, and is greatly venerated, especially by the mountaineers of Scutari who make an annual pilgrimage to it on 13 June, and exhibit on that occasion a very striking piety. The Mussulmans themselves respect the church and confide their treasures to the friars whenever they have reason to fear the rapacity of their pashas.

Within the diocesan limits of Alessio is the quasi-episcopal abbey (abbatia nullius) of St. Alexander Orosci or Orochi, the mountain stronghold of the small but brave body of the Catholic Mirdites of Albania. Since 1888 it enjoys an independent jurisdiction over this faithful and warlike people which in 1894 obtained from the Porte, through the good offices of Leo XIII, a civil jurisdiction for its abbot, and thereby freed itself from the irksome protectorate of Austria. The abbot had jurisdiction over about 18,000 Catholics, with 16 churches, 13 chapels, 11 secular priests, and 2 Franciscans. The present abbot, elected in 1888, is Monsignor Primo Dochi, an alumnus of the Propaganda.

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