Parish Church of San Pancrazio

INTERIOR The space is divided into three aisles by eight round longitudinal arches on each side, supported by alternating cruciform piers and columns (three piers and three columns on each side, plus one square pier on each side in the raised presbytery area) (see photo interior): in fact there are only seven arches on the south side, because the last bay at the level of the presbytery was closed off to create the Baroque chapel of St. Francis and St. Charles. The piers also support three large transverse arches that divide each aisle into three bays. These, both in the nave and in the aisles, are Renaissance work, built of brick, unlike the outer walls, which are of stone. In any case, the cruciform plan of the piers would suggest that a system of transverse arches was probably already planned at the time of the original Romanesque construction. The present roof, with exposed trusses, dates from the end of the 16th century. Note, in the upper parts of the long walls of the nave, the brick infills that replace the original stone corbels which supported the beams of an earlier trussed roof or of sloping roofs (some of these projecting support corbels are still visible). The interior masonry corresponds to what has already been said about the exterior. Only the lower parts of the inner façade are less carefully executed and, in places, the blocks have not been smoothed on their exposed faces. The presbytery area is considerably raised above the floor of the church; the latter, on the other hand, slopes slightly towards the west entrance, with the space corresponding to the first bay built at a level markedly lower than the floor of the aisles. There are no remains of, nor any reference to, the existence of a crypt at any period. The first four columns are heavily plastered with pinkish stucco and preserve remains of frescoes (according to the guidebook, the plaster reaches a thickness of more than ten centimetres, covering a monolithic stone core; precisely because of this thick layer, the circumference of the lower torus supporting the capital is smaller than that of the column. The third column from the right counting from the main portal (south side), clearly smaller, is the only visible one that can be ascribed to the original Romanesque structures; it rests on a heavy single block carved, on the side facing the nave, with two half-length figures wearing togas (see photo column base): it has been suggested that this is a Roman funerary stele; the block currently lies below the present floor level; only the female head is still visible, while the male one has been chiselled away. The corresponding column on the north side, on the other hand, was put in place during a restoration at the end of the 19th century. Another peculiarity is the base on which the first column on the right stands, which, a little above the level of the present floor, preserves remains of a fresco difficult to date and of uncertain attribution, perhaps part of ancient structures or possibly even of post-Romanesque execution; certainly the fresco must also have extended vertically, and it would not seem to have covered the nearby column, since the latter is already heavily plastered with stucco and remains of frescoes, which were therefore meant to be visible; trying to assign these painted remains to a narthex or to some other liturgical furnishing is extremely difficult. The first two capitals above the columns, counting from the entrance, which are moreover badly damaged, are reused Roman capitals in the Corinthian style: the first on the left (on a column with pinkish plaster) has suffered serious damage. Some parts of the original ornament have survived, barely sufficient to identify it as a Corinthian-style capital decorated with acanthus leaves. There is no impost block. The first on the right, also on a column with pinkish plaster and remains of fresco on the shaft, is likewise badly damaged. Here, however, there is a simply worked corbel-shaped impost block. On the west side remain traces of an animal (a lion?) in the centre of an acanthus-leaf motif; on the side facing the nave and on the east side, on the other hand, almost nothing remains; the south side, although conspicuously chiselled, preserves the depiction of an angel (if, as has been suggested, this were the angel symbolising the evangelist John, the other sides would have contained the symbols of the other three elements of the Tetramorph). The Romanesque capitals of the second pair of columns, again according to experts, repeat classical motifs and show considerable similarities to those of the church of the Madonna della Strada (or San Michele) at Belfiore (VR). Also on pink-stuccoed columns, the capital of the second column on the left, with serious losses, has its east and west sides chiselled away, while the side facing the nave preserves remains of an angel’s wing and the north side, badly damaged, may represent a Flight into Egypt (one can make out a mount carrying a haloed figure) (see photo capital Flight into Egypt). The opposite capital on the right preserves, on the side facing the presbytery, remains of the old decoration consisting of a human face set in the centre, beneath the impost block; the south face has a lunette in very low relief in a central position. The other two sides (east and north) are completely illegible. Of the last two columns, near the presbytery area, the one on the right (south aisle) is, as mentioned, the only one not plastered, made of pale monolithic stone and surmounted by a simple capital of Ionic type, while the opposite one was replaced with a modern support during the restoration at the end of the 19th century. The splay of the three single-light windows that open in the apse is emphasised by simple mouldings. The present high altar, in polychrome marble, was made at the beginning of the 18th century. In the apse area, now used as a support for a lectern, one can admire a fragment of an ambo, presumably dating from the 9th century, in pink Verona stone, found by chance in the nearby countryside, where it had been used as a bridge. Although the stone is crossed by a crack and is visibly worn, it still preserves, carved in relief, a cross with scrolls towards which six doves turn, each enclosed in its own panel. Also in this area, in the opposite corner, on the floor, there is a capital (it is impossible to tell what position it originally occupied), with only two sides worked and carved (see photo capital fragment): the side facing the altar is badly damaged and preserves only in one corner traces of the old decorative motif of leaves and caulicoli, while on the side facing the hemicycle of the apse the same decorative motif is better preserved (the other two sides are of rough stone and would not appear to have been prepared for carving). The floor was relaid in the second half of the 20th century, although, following the original levels, it is arranged on several planes, emphasising the marked difference in height between the apse area to the east, which is much higher, and the opposite area of the inner façade. The interior walls must originally, and apparently until the 19th century, have been entirely frescoed: today only portions remain. FRESCOES Various sections painted in different periods survive on the walls: from the 14th century are: in the apse hemicycle, the Crucifixion with the Madonna, the Holy Women, Mary Magdalene and St. John (below, in Gothic lettering, are recorded the name of the patron and that of the artist, with the date of the work: “(Ba)RTOLAMEUS CLARI DE MONTECLARO MCCCLXXXVII ARTI JOHANINUS SUUS FILIUS FECIT HOC OPUS”); beside it, also from the 14th century, is an Enthroned Madonna and Child. Further to the right, two other frescoes show stylistic features of the Gothic period (14th century): St. Michael the Archangel and the Madonna in Majesty. Below the 17th-century half-moon window set in the north aisle is a fresco of an enthroned nursing Madonna (Madonna del Latte), dated 1388. A little beyond this portal, towards the west, is one of the many depictions of St. Pancras, shown here on horseback with a donor. The date 1389 is recorded in the double band of the frame. Below the triumphal arch another St. Pancras on horseback can be seen, considered the oldest depiction of this saint among the many preserved in this church. In the small conch of the north apse, on the left, appear three saints: Mary Magdalene, St. Peter and St. John with a donor, probably the work of the same artist who painted the St. Pancras. Also from the beginning of the 14th century is the Enthroned Madonna between Sts. Nicholas of Bari and Catherine of Alexandria. From the 15th century there remain, on the north long wall, high up above the nursing Madonna, a figure of St. Pancras (early 15th century); below the fresco of the Madonna with St. Nicholas and St. Catherine of Alexandria (14th century), and partly overlapping it, are fragments of a Madonna and Child (mid-15th century), and, on the inner façade, another St. Pancras on horseback (15th century). From the end of the 15th century, on the other hand, are some of the paintings decorating the columns (see photo frescoed column): experts identify in them St. Margaret, St. Pancras, St. Anthony Abbot and the Virgin. More important are the frescoes datable to the 16th century: again in the north aisle there is a Madonna with saints, among whom St. Pancras, St. Thomas the Apostle and St. Thomas Aquinas can be recognised, attributed to Pietro da Carlina the Younger (rather damaged). Near the north side entrance some fragments survive of a St. Pancras by Romanino, painted between 1532 and 1536, of which unfortunately only parts of the horse, of the saint’s bust and of the landscape in the background remain legible. On the long wall of the south aisle, also from the 16th century, there are, at the level of the second bay from the entrance, a St. Pancras dated 1543, followed, towards the east, by a fresco by Callisto Piazza da Lodi depicting the Sacra Conversazione with the Madonna and Child, St. Anthony Abbot, St. Roch, St. Pancras and a donor (painted, according to experts, around 1525-1527); also on this side wall, attributed to or comparable with works by Zenon Veronese and datable to the first decades of the 16th century, is the fresco with five saints (St. Pancras, St. Roch, St. Christopher, St. Anthony Abbot and St. Sebastian). Other frescoes of a period that cannot be determined more precisely are, to the left of the Crucifixion in the apse, the two framed scenes depicting two monk saints, a bishop and a warrior saint. Also uncertain is the dating both of the Crucifixion with St. John and the Virgin, painted on the pier of the presbytery, and of the paintings with scenes of saints above the door leading to the cemetery area (scholars would relate them to reminiscences of the school of Ferramola, 16th century); for an accurate description of the paintings preserved in this ancient monument, the reader is referred to more specialised research. The south apse and the adjoining bay of the aisle are now occupied by a chapel built in the 17th century and dedicated to St. Francis and St. Charles; the sacristy was built at the same time. The marble altar in the north aisle, also of the 17th century, is dedicated to St. Cajetan of Thiene. An oil painting depicting this saint hangs on the wall on this side of the church. Outside, in the first courtyard of the former cemetery area, some millstones of pinkish granite, once used as tomb covers, are on display. BELL TOWER On the north flank of the church, almost incorporated into the hemicycle of the north minor apse, rises the bell tower, whose construction and structure are clearly different from those of the church. The present bell tower is the result of a radical rebuilding at the end of the 17th century. It replaced an older Romanesque tower, originally located at the north-east corner of the church, which collapsed in the 14th century. Indeed, in the walls of this part of the building (north-east sector of the nave and adjoining aisle) the repairs made with bricks, some laid in herringbone pattern and combined with other salvaged materials, remain clearly visible. The top of the tower is built entirely of terracotta, as are the quoins (most of the masonry is covered with plaster); the bell chamber is open on all four sides with large round-arched windows; at the top is a pinnacle on a polygonal plan. The tower also has four slit windows on the north side and one slit window on the south side.