San Romerio
The Church of San Romerio (in the Poschiavo dialect : San Rumeri ) is located in the southeastern part of Switzerland in the canton of Graubünden in Val Poschiavo , Switzerland on the Alpe San Romerio at 1793 meters above sea level. The nave of the little church is thought to date from the 11th century. The choir and tower were added in the 15th to 16th centuries.
As Remigiuskirche is San Romerio the Holy Remigius consecrated.
location
San Romerio stands in a splendid landscape about 800 m above the lake level of the Lago di Poschiavo on a terrace that has been falling steeply next to the church since a landslide 15,000 years ago. The alp is located on the south side of the Cornasc (2480 meters). From San Romerio you have a good view over the lower part of the Poschiavo and the lake. The view to Tirano is open to the south .
The joke that makes the rounds among the natives of the valley is that it accurately describes the location of the church: if you walk around the church, you will never get sick again. Since the church is located directly on the steep, vertically sloping rock face, it cannot be circled without falling into the deadly depth.
The church building can be reached from Lago di Poschiavo in a two-hour hike upwards. A not too steep, wider path leads to the Maiensäss Piaz , about 30 minutes' walk away , to which an unpaved road leads up from Viano .
The Maiensäss has two circular buildings that serve as a milk cellar.
It is one of the church buildings that flank the mule track from the Rhine Valley to Italy ( Po Valley ), as well as z. B. Sta. Maria near Pontresina , San Pietro near Poschiavo or Santa Perpetua in Tirano .
history
In Roman times and in the Middle Ages, a mule track ran from Viano via San Romerio to the Bernina Pass .
The first documentary mention goes back to two donations of goods to the church in 1106, whereby a community of servitores ecclesie sancti Romerii is mentioned. A statement from 1154 shows that at the time when Guido Grimoldi was Bishop of Como (1096–1125), the members of this association followed the rule of St. Augustine have received. This is confirmed to them by Bishop Ardizzone in 1154. From this it can be seen that the religious people united here remained lay people, but followed a fixed rule of the order, without being monks in the actual sense.
In a document of March 27, 1237, the church is then united with that of Santa Perpetua in Tirano , where a similar religious settlement existed, with episcopal approval.
By papal decree of September 27, 1517, the churches of San Romerio and Perpetua were integrated with all rights and goods into the newly founded church of Santa Maria della Folla di Tirano (today Santuario della Madonna ). Since then, San Romerio has served the clergy from Valtellina as a summer station during the hot season . Every year a large procession took place from Tirano (400 meters), which moved through vineyards, the forest and alpine meadows to the church at 1,800 meters above sea level.
Building description
The church faces east and consists of an irregularly rectangular nave and an almost square choir. The choir arch is unmounted and semicircular. It bears the date 1659 in the top. The roof structure over the nave is open. The floor is covered with roughly trimmed, irregular stone slabs. The plastering of the ship's walls has a rough surface, while that of the choir has a smooth surface. The natural light is extremely sparse. In the south side of the choir there is a square window, in the south long side of the nave there is a round arched closed light gap, in the west wall a small square window and another small gap. The door on the south side is simply square, as is the one to the tower, which can be reached through a rough stone staircase of six steps inside the church.
From the nave there is also an entrance to an annexed, irregularly polygonal annex, which is not connected to the south, and which could also be entered from the vestibule through a now walled-up arched door. This was later used as an ossuary, but may have previously been a side chapel, whereupon the connection to the ship as well as a mural of St. Antonius Abbot points out. It is a rectangular painting of provincial work, framed by a red-white-green border , probably from the first quarter of the 16th century.
The exterior plastering is only preserved in larger parts on the choir - especially on its north side - while it has fallen off on the nave with the exception of small remains on the west gable. In front of the south wall of the ship there is a brick-built, open vestibule that adjoins the extension described above. The slightly inclined roof, covered with stone slabs, extends over the nave, choir, annex and vestibule in a uniform manner.
The tower is on the north side of the ship at a higher level, as can be seen from the entrance from the ship. It has no structure, is roughly plastered and has light slits on the ground floor, simple semicircular windows on the second floor - walled up to the east and south - and broad, semicircular sound windows on top. The scaffolding holes are still open. A pyramid of plates forms the end.
The very ancient shape of the slit window on the south side allows the assumption that the nave still belongs to the church first mentioned in 1106. The choir is of a later date, as the loose connection and the differences in plastering show. However, it must at least be older than the current vault, which can be concluded from the inconsistencies between this and the existing corner pillars. Perhaps it was created - in place of an old chancel of unknown shape - after 1517, when San Romerio was united with Madonna di Tirano. The southern extension ( ossuary ) with the image of St. Anthony may come from around 1517 , as does the tower, which is made of one piece and, according to the shape of the sound windows and the roof, by no means belongs to the Romanesque era. The vestibule is younger than the ossuary and probably belongs to the construction phase of 1659.
The equipment of the church is modest. The altar has a simple frame, crowned with a loose roof, and was apparently created during the renovation in 1659. The picture - Our Lady with San Romerio and Perpetua - is signed: "1817 Domenico Faletti pinz." To the right of the entrance, half set in a small wall niche, there is an unadorned holy water font. In the vestibule lies a roughly hewn stone with a bowl 46 cm in diameter and 20 cm deep. Since a right to baptize is out of the question for San Romerio, it must also be a stone from an old fulling mill .
The bell has a diameter of 51½ cm. The inscription reads + SANCTE REMIGI ORA NOBIS 1627 . A plaque reads : BERTHOLOMEUS QUADRIUS PONTENSIS VALTELINE FECIT ( made by Bertholomeus Quadrius von Ponte in Veltlin ).
Todays situation
The mountain hut Ristorante e Rifugio Alpe San Romerio offers meals and accommodation in double, multi-bed rooms and dormitories. The key to the church is kept there.
The traditional festival of San Romerio takes place every year on the last Sunday in July.
Web links
- San Romerio Refuge
- Arno Lanfranchi: San Romerio. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
- Chiesa in San Romerio
Individual evidence
- ↑ montivagus.de: Bernina. Retrieved April 27, 2010 .
- ↑ TIRANO l'aquila sul castello .
- ↑ kath.ch: In Brusio the church is still in the village. Retrieved April 28, 2010 .
Coordinates: 46 ° 16 '54.8 " N , 10 ° 6' 59.9" E ; CH1903: 806,365 / 129130