Santa Maria del Castello (Mesocco)
The Catholic Church of Santa Maria del Castello stands below the Castello di Mesocco near Mesocco in Misox in the canton of Graubünden in Switzerland.
History and construction
The church appears for the first time in the foundation letter for San Vittore GR from 1219. As a visitation protocol from 1583 shows, it was probably rebuilt around 1100 instead of an early medieval complex as an undivided hall church with a rectangular nave, two semicircular apses and a campanile .
On January 23, 1450, Count Heinrich von Sax-Misox donated an altar in honor of John the Baptist in the name of his late brother Johannes. The altar was consecrated along with two others on June 6, 1459, probably in connection with an extensive renovation of the church in the 1450s. In 1479 a cross altar is also mentioned. Another renovation took place shortly before 1583. In 1627 the old apses were laid down under the direction of Giovanni Battista Viscardi from San Vittore. The ship was lengthened by four meters to the east, as can still be seen from a wall joint in the south. The choir was rebuilt under a cross vault . At the same time, the ceiling strips were drawn in and the windows enlarged. The painting of the ceiling dates from 1757 and was painted by the Somvixer Johannes Sepp according to the signature . The sacristy was added to the north in 1680. In 1923 another renovation took place under Max Bachofen, and the exterior was renovated in 1974–76 under Walter Golder from Roveredo. The last restoration took place in the summer of 2010. The six-storey Romanesque tower, covered with stone slabs like the ship, with coupled arched windows in the upper four floors dates from the year 1100. It stands on the south side of the ship. The monumental image of St. Christopher on the facade was created in 1469 and, like the frescoes inside, probably came from the Seregnesi's workshop. The oldest of the numerous visitor inscriptions in the lower part dates from 1469.
Pictures on the north wall
The windowless, almost six meters high and twelve meters long north nave wall is decorated with three strips of pictures one on top of the other. They were all created between 1459 and 1469 and were created by the Lombard painters Christoforo and Nicolao da Seregno . Uncle and nephew Seregno painted numerous churches in the southern Alpine valleys between 1448 and 1480, almost in a monopoly position.
In the upper frieze, several scenes from the Passion of Christ are depicted in a large picture on the left. The image of the crucifixion on the right is surrounded by its own frame.
The middle stripe includes four depictions: George's dragon fight, the division of the cloak of St. Martin , Archangel Michael with the scales of the soul and St. Bernardine of Siena , Stephen , Antonius , Peter as Pope, St. Lucia of Syracuse and, as the last picture, a scene of adoration of the kings.
St. George
St. Martin
Saints
Adoration of the Magi
Monthly pictures
In the bottom strip there are twelve monthly pictures with scenes from rural and knightly life. Each picture covers an area of 115 × 91 centimeters. Activities or events from daily life that recur year after year in the change of the seasons are shown. Due to their arrangement below the biblical representations, the earthly life of the people connects with the heavenly and its powers.
January
February
March
April
January : A middle-class man warms himself in his armchair by the stove. Wood supplies are stored behind him, ham and sausages hang above him.
February : A kneeling man sharpens vine sticks on a rootstock.
March : A young man with flowing hair blows a double horn. On the left the symbol of an opened seed.
April : Spring, depicted as a young rider on a white horse, bears a branch with budding flowers. The predominant color is green, the color of life.
May
June
July
August
May : A young knightly couple rides out on a hawk hunt.
June : A young farmer mows grass with his scythe.
July : A fashionably dressed reaper cuts ripe ears with a sickle.
August : A sick person goes to a rack with medicine bottles, leaning on his cane. A representation that is rare in monthly pictures and relates to summer illnesses.
September
October
November
December
September : A cooper frosts a wine barrel in preparation for the following harvest.
October : A farming couple harvest chestnuts. A rare depiction in which the image of a pig fattening that was otherwise used in October has been replaced by the local chestnut. The naturalistic depiction of the farmer with a careworn face and crop is also striking.
November : A pig has been slaughtered and is now being cut up.
December : A rare depiction of the slaughter of an ox on the southern side of the Alps.
Since the original images from November and December were badly damaged, they were recreated in 1923 by E. Dillena based on templates from the Church of Monte Carasso .
Pictures on the south wall
On the south wall there is also a heavily damaged trinity by the Seregnesi with Saint Anthony on the right and an enthroned Mother of God on the left. The founder Giuliano de Malagrida mentioned in the inscription is proven to be a pastor in Mesocco in 1449. The fresco was found in 1923 and restored as much as possible. On the same wall there is a fragment of an originally six-meter-long Last Supper from around 1570–80. It was disrupted at the beginning of the 18th century by the installation of the cross altar. There are five apostles sitting at the table; John leans against Christ.
Interior
The high altar made of stucco probably dates from the first half of the 19th century, the image of the Virgin from 1634 by Mathis Chefeler from Uri. The stucco side altars date from around 1630–40. The three kings altar bears an epiphany image on the left, probably also by Chefeler, on the right on the Johannes altar the baptism in the Jordan is depicted. On the south wall there is a cross altar with a picture of Our Lady and Saint Catherine of Siena from the second half of the 16th century painted directly on the wall ; the altar was built around the picture at the beginning of the 18th century. The pulpit made of walnut wood with inlaid tendrils and a dome-shaped sound cover was built in 1730. the holy water font made of white marble was built around 1650.
Trinity
Last supper
Cross altar
literature
- Erwin Poeschel: Art Monuments of the Canton of Graubünden - Volume VI . Birkhäuser Verlag, Basel 1945
- Cesare Santi, Chiesa di Santa Maria del castello a Mesocco. Almanacco Mesolcina-Calanca, 66, Mesocco 2003, pp. 75-81.
- Swiss art guides: Mesocco, Castle and Church of Sta. Maria
- Ludmila Seifert, Leza Dosch: Art guide through Graubünden . Scheidegger & Spiess, Zurich 2008
- Ursmar Engelmann: The monthly pictures of S. Maria del Castello in Mesocco . Herder-Verlag, Freiburg im Breisgau 1977
- Dieter Matti: Old pictures - reinterpreted, church art in the pass country . Volume 2; Desertina, Chur 2010, ISBN 978-3-85637-369-6 , pp. 47-50
- Dieter Matti: Monthly pictures, companion through the year , with detailed documentation of the monthly cycle; Desertina, Chur 2014, ISBN 978-3-85637-460-0 , pp. 33-36
- Manuel Maissen: In the shadow of the castle , in Bündner Monatsblatt 1/2018, pp. 97–113
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Cristoforo e Nicolao da Seregno (Italian)
- ^ Matthias Oberli: Nicolao da Seregno. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
Coordinates: 46 ° 22 '51.5 " N , 9 ° 13' 58.9" E ; CH1903: 738037 / 138201