Parish Church of San Pancrazio

The earliest documentary sources relating to the pieve of San Pancrazio at Montichiari date from the 12th century (papal bulls of Innocent II of 1140, of Alexander III of 1177 and of Pope Lucius III of 1185). “Several minor churches scattered across the morainic hinterland of Lake Garda and the plain south of the town depended on the pieve of San Pancrazio”. Within the district of the pieve there were a curtis, perhaps of early medieval origin, and a castrum, around which the burgus superior developed. The present church of San Pancrazio stands on one of the last hill spurs south of the Garda area, dominating the plain of the lower Brescia region. The dedication to St. Pancras probably dates back at least to the Romanesque period; this saint, a native of Phrygia, was martyred while still young, in Rome, under the emperor Diocletian. Local iconography portrays him as a youth, dressed as a legionary: depicted several times in the pieve, he also appears on horseback, holding a banner with a red cross on a white field. From as early as the 14th century, the building underwent various maintenance and restoration works, made necessary by the collapse of the bell tower, which had damaged the roofs and part of the outer walls of the north aisle. In the 16th-17th centuries the roof was again rebuilt and the presbytery enlarged; new side altars were also built and the frescoes by Romanino and Callisto da Lodi were painted. In the 18th century San Pancrazio lost its functions as a baptismal church in favour of the new parish church of Santa Maria Assunta. The last restoration campaign (1965-1995) involved the restoration and cleaning of the frescoes and the arrangement of the outdoor areas. Some scholars date the origins of the pieve of Montichiari to the 5th-6th century, flourishing during the early medieval centuries and reaching its greatest splendour in the 12th century. A first place of worship is thought to have been built on the remains of a pre-existing Roman settlement, established to control one of the routes that led from the valley of the river Chiese to join the Via Postumia. It seems that the first Christian settlement consisted of a church with an attached burial ground and of quarters for the clergy, who resided here permanently. The present Romanesque building is thought to have been built over this primitive early medieval church (as well as over part of the Roman-period structures). According to some experts, traces of decoration from the barbarian period survive in some reliefs with knots and geometric motifs, reused in the main apse, and in the remains of imposing walls discovered during the 1965 restoration, still partly visible in the underground area opened beneath the present floor, which, moreover, is laid on levels of different heights (in the north aisle, between the first and second bays, powerful, deep foundation walls are still visible, covered by a thick sheet of glass; in the diametrically opposite position, against the south side wall, a staircase has recently been built leading to the underground area excavated in 1965). From a comparison of the elevation with that of other churches in Verona, such as San Zeno and San Giovanni in Valle (affected by the reconstruction after the earthquake and probably almost completed by the 1140s), considered prototypes of the architectural structures adopted in the church at Montichiari, the beginning of the 12th century can be deduced as the period of the Romanesque rebuilding. The archivolt of the side door, now walled up, in the south long wall is decorated with zoomorphic and plant motifs that recall certain sculptural elements in San Zeno and San Giovanni in Valle in Verona; stylistic comparisons can also be made with certain fantastic zoomorphic motifs included in the decoration of the portal of the church of San Siro at Cemmo in Valle Camonica. Other scholars, however, date the Romanesque rebuilding later, to the second half of the 12th century, mainly on the basis of the papal documents (two papal bulls of Alexander and Lucius). The present church of San Pancrazio has a basilican plan, with a tripartite façade reflecting the interior division into three aisles, a trussed roof and three apses to the east, the central one being the tallest and widest. Curious is the precise position of the two-light window in the façade, exactly opposite the central single-light window of the main apse to the east, so that at the equinoxes, around sunset, the sunlight, entering from the west through the two-light window, illuminates only the central single-light window of the apse. The building shows, in general, particular care in the construction of the walls, using large, well-squared blocks of pale stone, albeit of different sizes, laid in mortar (coming, according to experts, from the nearby quarries of Mazzano and Virle), with occasional reused Roman pieces, laid in mortar beds of varying thickness. The general homogeneity of the structures would indicate a single building phase for the façade, the long walls and the main apse, although with alterations made in various periods and for various reasons: insertions unrelated to the Romanesque building are present in the south long wall, near the apse area, with the room now used as the rectory; in the north long wall, both in the elevation walls of the aisle and of the nave, here too near the apse area and affected by the rebuilding following the collapse of the bell tower (14th century), restorations carried out using bricks; and also in the two minor apses, rebuilt in modern times. Slight differences in the laying of the materials can be seen in the south long wall, in those sections of wall towards the west near the side portal, where the blocks are somewhat more roughly squared, with their exposed faces left unsmoothed and set in thick layers of binder. By contrast, the section of masonry east of this side portal, more or less in the area of the smaller single-light window, shows particular care in its execution, evident both in the material used, which is well worked, and in the mortar beds between the blocks, which, unlike in the lower parts, where the layers reach as much as 2-3 centimetres, are reduced here to one centimetre or a little more. On this side lies a large area enclosed by a wall of cobblestones, once used as a cemetery and later adapted, with the addition of a room, as a dwelling for the custodian. Below the sills of the eight single-light windows of the nave, again on the south side, and above the present upper edge of the aisle roof, a sort of projecting cornice made of large squared stones runs along the entire length, probably a sign of where the aisle roofs originally rested. Also on this side of the church, between the projecting sacristy and the hemicycle of the south apse, are the remains of a door (see photo south portal), now walled up, which preserves in its upper arch (formed by five monoliths of white stone) a complex bas-relief decoration carved with a human head, a fantastic animal with a feline head and the body of a sea serpent (resembling some of the monsters carved on the jambs and lintel of the portal of San Siro at Cemmo), other zoomorphic figures and decorations with plant and floral motifs (according to some, this opening may have provided access to the area of the baptistery, which must have stood outside the church, as was often the case with Romanesque baptisteries in northern Lombardy such as Galliano, Agliate, Arsago Seprio or Oggiono. Today the parish church of Montichiari preserves a baptismal font from the pieve of San Pancrazio, which, however, is not the original medieval one). The impression of being in front of an imposing and compact building, essential and austere, sparing in ornament and simple in its architectural forms, is emphasised by the tall tripartite façade, bare of any significant decorative detail, and by the flight of seventeen steps leading to the single raised entrance (see photo façade). The portal has a round arch without splaying, framed by blocks of pale limestone. Only a few openings break the monotonous sequence of horizontal courses of pale stone: above the portal is a two-light window with double-moulded arches and a double central colonnette of pink stone surmounted by an undecorated crutch capital; higher still is a small cross-shaped window. On the fronts of the side aisles, instead, are two oculi with white stone surrounds (the one on the north aisle seems to have been restored, while the south one shows clear signs of wear and would appear to be original). At the south corner of the façade, a little above the level of the churchyard, a well-squared block of white stone of the Roman period, reused here, is walled in crosswise: on its west-facing side it preserves remains of a relief decoration depicting a vase of ivy. Narrow single-light windows with plain splays and round heads, without decoration, are set along the outer walls: eight in the south wall (see photo south flank) and seven in the north wall of the nave; in the long walls of the aisles, on the other hand, there are only five single-light windows on each side (the two towards the east being slightly smaller and less deeply splayed). The eaves of the nave, both north and south and along their whole length, are marked by a double projecting cornice made of pale stones: below the level of the roof tiles, the projection is formed by a horizontal row of squared stones resting on the second, less projecting band, where the squared stones are chamfered on their lower edge. In addition to the windows, other openings are located on both the north and the south long sides: the south entrance (which leads to the former cemetery area) consists of a wide opening with arch and jambs of large white stones, probably built at the same time as the outer walls; also on this long side are the remains of the small portal, now walled up, further to the east; on the north flank, the side door presents a curiosity: among the white stone voussoirs (perhaps marble from the nearby quarries of Botticino) used for the round arch, a fragment of a Roman tombstone has been inserted, with an inscription (see photo inscription) that reads: …(Corn)ELIUS P(ublii) F(ilius) … SIBI ET … SELUNDAI … ET … CANDIDO Next to this entrance, near the apse area, there is today a large semicircular window, the result of the Renaissance rebuilding and of the adaptation to the new liturgical requirements, inserted in the part of the building affected, as scholars say, by the collapse of the old Romanesque bell tower. The only decorative features visible on the exterior are concentrated in the apse area (see photo apse area 1), although it must be said that this part of the building has been heavily restored: the two minor apses have in fact been rebuilt following their original dimensions. The main apse, on the other hand, seems intact. CENTRAL APSE In the lowest parts of the walls of the central apse, medium-sized stones are laid, interspersed with horizontal bands of terracotta; moreover, and this is a not very common feature, these insertions are also made vertically, which suggests, in the search for colour contrast, a sort of Venetian inspiration). Ten flat pilaster strips topped by corbel capitals of grey stone decorated in bas-relief with interlaced ribbon motifs articulate the semicircular surfaces (see photo central apse detail). Some even attribute the type of decoration used here to the 6th-7th century and consider it to have originally belonged to an older building and to have been reused in this apse as part of the Romanesque rebuilding. Linking the pilaster strips is a cornice formed by pairs of monolithic blind rampant arches of white and grey limestone, supported by small corbels carved with anthropomorphic and floral motifs (partly eroded). The human face carved on the corbel that is now almost adjacent to the bell tower is in a good state of preservation (see photo small head). Above the arches runs a narrow strip of red bricks laid in a sawtooth pattern. Today three windows are set in this apse: the central one was reopened during the last restorations and retains its original form, with a moulded splay and a narrow opening; the south one, with a plain splay and of different size, is a reconstruction resulting from the 20th-century restoration. The north one, on the other hand, is almost completely blocked by the bell tower. The eaves of the front of the nave above the main apse are decorated by a cornice of bricks laid in a sawtooth pattern and, a little below, by a series of blind rampant arches in brick, resting on simple corbels, also of terracotta. In the centre of the front is a cross-shaped window, now walled up (see photo apse area 2). MINOR APSES The side apses, altered in the 17th century, were restored in 1984, as far as possible, to their presumed original medieval appearance. The north apse is almost completely hidden by the mass of the bell tower, built right up against the hemicycle. Three pilaster strips and six monolithic arches, not original, remain partly visible: the lower walls (like the lower parts of the south apsidiole), on the other hand, preserve stretches of the old masonry of squared pale stones, interspersed with horizontal bands of reddish bricks. The semicircle of the south apse is articulated by five pilaster strips linked by pairs of double-moulded blind arches in white stone, almost all of modern construction. The lower walls show archaic features, with fairly large pale stones alternating with horizontal courses of red bricks. The single-light window is not of the Romanesque period. The blind arches of the south apse (the two original ones still in place at the point where the semicircle joins the east front of the aisle) have arches formed by a double moulding, whereas in the main apse the arches have a simple moulding with a line incised around the arch. Above the present levels of the roofs of the side apses the old position of the roofs is still visible, identifiable in the series of projecting, sloping blocks set into the wall. continued >>>