Parish Church of San Giorgio di Valpolicella

Bell tower (see bell tower photo) The bell tower, a mighty 12th-century square tower, built of roughly hewn light-coloured limestone blocks of different sizes, laid in horizontal courses in thick mortar, has masonry on all four sides similar to that of the perimeter walls of the church. The exceptions are the corner buttresses, starting at a height of about 4–5 metres above ground level and about a metre wide, and the central pilaster strip linked by pairs of compound small hanging arches in stone for the first two levels of the elevation (note that the second frieze of paired small arches is placed at almost three times the height of the lower frieze), and, in the third, upper section, by a narrower pilaster strip (visible only on the east and north sides), linked by three small brick arches on each side (on the west side, below the three-light window of the bell chamber, a clock has now been inserted, while on the south side a heavy cement rendering survives at the same level). The north side of the tower, in its lower part, is integrated into the plan of the aisle (inside the church, on the perimeter wall of the south aisle, the projection of the base of the bell tower is visible). Towards the lower south-west corner a large squared block of limestone is set into the wall, probably reused and salvaged from Roman buildings, with a slight carved moulding marking its edges, and just above it is what must have been a monolith with the remains of two small arches. Only on the west side of the bell chamber is there a moulded three-light window with compound stone arches resting on two monolithic colonnettes topped by simple crutch capitals, while the other sides open with two-light windows with small moulded brick arches and a single column with undecorated crutch capitals. The top of the tower is squared, with a low hipped roof. In addition to the openings of the bell chamber, each side of the tower has narrow slit windows set at several levels. In general the characteristic Romanesque building features are still well preserved, though partly altered, especially in the masonry of the central sections of the south face, which shows scattered, sometimes substantial, additions in red terracotta. The last section too, consisting of the bell chamber and the square top section of the tower, has masonry repeating the variety of materials found at the top of the west side. The top of the tower above the windows is square, with masonry showing signs of repair. Cloister (see cloister photo) The cloister, set against the easternmost stretch of the south longitudinal wall of the church, is dated to the 12th century. Three of the four colonnaded sides survive, each structurally different from the others; the west walk is missing altogether, replaced by a recent enclosure. Of these three walks, the shorter north one and the east one (see photo cloister east side) are covered by a lean-to roof of curved tiles and large stone slabs. The colonnettes supporting the cloister arcades rest on a continuous low wall of varying height. On the base of the east walk, towards the apse area, there is a square incised pattern that looks almost like the scheme of a game (the game of “triglia”?), or else a reproduction of the plan of the cloister itself, if not the depiction of a labyrinth, or again a motif similar to the one painted near the western apse conch. In the lower parts the masonry is comparable to that of the bell tower and the church; only the parts above the arches show a more careful treatment of the stone blocks, which have been squared and finished. Only on the south side of the quadrangle does the masonry become more confused, with substantial Roman inserts, some of which preserve parts with incised Latin letters. The round arches, on colonnettes and small piers, are generally made of two well-worked voussoirs. The decorations adorning the capitals of the colonnettes are in a fair state of preservation; they display various ornamental types belonging to the repertoire of the fantastic-religious bestiaries and herbals of the medieval period. Only at the beginning of the 19th century were the buildings originally used by the clergy partly destroyed or incorporated into the present rectory. The east side is the one with the most refined stylistic execution, and the decoration of the capitals is in some cases of a high artistic level. In this walk there are fourteen arches, divided by a monolithic pier of squared light stone into two sections of seven small arches each, supported by colonnettes and small piers of different materials, topped by undecorated crutch capitals in the case of the small piers, while on the colonnettes the capitals are carved with a variety of subjects: plant (such as those of the first two colonnettes after the small pier towards the south, in pink marble with stylised leaf decoration), animal (the capital of the sixth colonnette from the left, in pink marble, with chamfered corners and a crutch impost, is decorated on all four sides with animals set within a semicircular frame; the first, the third and the fourth are capitals with caulicoli at the corners and small animals in relief set in the central spaces), or human (as on another capital where, on the outer face, there is a human head and on the sides two animal figures, one of them upside down – see capital photo). On the inner wall of this side of the cloister traces of fresco remain; the outlines of a lion can still be made out. Of the south side of the cloister twelve compound arches survive, interrupted by a squared entrance with jambs and lintel made of large stone blocks: the six arches towards the west rest on colonnettes and small piers with simply moulded monolithic crutch capitals. The six arches towards the east rest on colonnettes of white and pink Verona marble, with capitals decorated with vine-scroll plant motifs. On the north side the division of the space is not uniform: at the right-hand end (looking from the centre of the courtyard) there is a two-light opening supported by a small pier with an undecorated crutch capital; next, to the left, comes a squared opening giving access to the portico, where two further entrances are set (towards the eastern area and towards the church). To the left of this entrance there are five arches (the last one, towards the bell tower, is truncated), resting alternately on single or paired columns of different materials, with monolithic crutch capitals even on the paired colonnettes, carved and decorated with simple geometric-plant motifs, except for the first capital next to the jamb of the entrance, which has two stylised eagles with spread wings at the corners, unfortunately headless; the capital of the other colonnette, partly damaged, preserves on its inner face a light plant motif of vine scrolls and bunches of grapes. Near the entrance door to the church a squared tombstone with a dedicatory inscription is also set into the wall. continued >>>