As for the G23 spire, also in this case the studies conducted by the Archive of the Veneranda Fabbrica attribute to this work a double identity, identified in the figures of Saint Desiderius and San Quirino. Saint Desiderius seems to have been originally from the area around Genoa and miraculously appointed to the episcopal seat of Langres. A cleric from the city wrote a story about the martyrdom of Saint Desiderius at the beginning of the 7th century, based mainly on local traditions; according to what is written, bishop Desiderius was beheaded during an invasion of the Vandals or Germans in the 4th century. A legend tells that after his decapitation, the holy bishop picked up his head and returned to the city through a crack in the rock that had opened to let him pass through, still visible today Saint Quirinus, on the other hand, was a Roman tribune to whom the martyrs Alexander, Eventius and Theodulus were handed over. His conversion occurred after witnessing the miracles performed by the three martyrs and he was baptized together with his daughter; he later suffered martyrdom himself and died beheaded on March 30 of a year at the beginning of the 3rd century; his body was buried in the Pretestato cemetery on the Appian Way, in Rome. The relics of the saint, however, had a history of their own and are still worshipped today in the cathedral of Saint Quirino in Nauss. His cult spred throughout Germany, Belgium and even Italy.

Tales of the statue in the Dome’s construction site:

The author of the statue with the double attribution is Giovanni Battista Perabò, the creation dates back to 1812 but its placement took place later, around 1829.