San Severo (Bardolino)
The church of San Severo is just outside the old town of Bardolino . It was mentioned as early as 893 and remained the spiritual center of the city until the 15th century. The current building was probably renovated in Romanesque forms after the earthquake of 1117 . Remains of a longobard predecessor building from the 8th century that is around 300 years older are still there.
Exterior construction
Large parts of the Romanesque building have been preserved, even if the apse area was reconstructed in 1942/1943. The church has the basic shape of a three-aisled basilica with small, arched windows. The naves each end with an apse in the east. Round arch friezes run below the eaves . The south aisle (late 10th to early 11th century) is narrower than the north, which dates from the 12th century. The floor plan shows a distortion that differs from the right-angled construction, which can be seen especially on the sloping west facade.
The west facade, which was reworked around 1700, clearly shows the two different construction phases: the middle and the right area come from the early phase (late 10th to early 11th century), the left area as part of the north aisle from the 12th Century.
The towering bell tower with pilaster strips on the four edges is attached to the eastern end of the south wall. Large, arched sound openings allow a view of the bells. An indented conical roof closes the tower at the top.
Interior
Inside to the east
on the triumphal arch, the asymmetry of the building can be seen, which points to different construction phases
Triumphal cross
View from the north aisle
Two rows of squat columns with simple capitals support the massive side walls and the open roof structure. Layers of brick and tuff alternate with the columns , this alternation can also be seen on the triumphal arch above the main apse.
crypt
A Longobard crypt from the previous building was uncovered under the main apse . Today the covering vault is missing, but the supporting pillars are still preserved. When the building was still vaulted, it must have been a squat, gloomy space.
Frescoes
The great peculiarity of San Severo is the faded, but largely preserved fresco decoration, which dates from the first half of the 12th century and once covered the entire interior. Here we are not looking at a Byzantine tradition, but rather Romanesque frescoes, which emphasized lively narrative representation rather than elegant composition. The individual scenes are not separate pictures delimited by frames, but are painted one behind the other without interruption. The graphic representation dominates, in which no value is placed on the three-dimensional shaping of the individual figures. The liveliness and intensity of the narrative are crucial.
Scenes on the north side
Passion scenes: Last Supper, Herod asks Jesine, Pilate before the people, the way to Calvary with Simon helping Christ to carry the cross, and the burial; above it is the iconographically hardly interpretable representation of a knight's battle.
Scenes on the south side
Above the apostles are scenes from the apocalypse of St. John to recognize: Christ between the seven golden candelabra, the 24 elders, the throat from which the devils spring, the horses with the lion's head and the snake tail, the seven-headed dragon in front of the woman symbolizing the church, in between the vision of a burning city and the St. Michael, who wins the fight against Satan with his angels. In the reveals of the arcade arches there are magnificently decorated decorative borders. In the left aisle a fragment of the fresco depicting Christ as Redeemer can still be seen.
literature
- Zimmermanns, Klaus: The Veneto. Verona - Vicenza - Padua. Art, culture and landscape of Veneto. Cologne 1990. (DuMont art travel guide)
- Nana Claudia Nenzel: Tuscany, from the series “Dumont Travel correctly”, ISBN 3-7701-5598-X
Web links
- Chiesa di San Severo on www.museionline.info (Italian)
Coordinates: 45 ° 33 '0.26 " N , 10 ° 43' 20.78" E.