|
Netro (Biella)- Cemetery church of Santa Maria Assunta
|
|
|
Show to visit in the Biella area: |
 The church was built in the Middle Ages as the parish church of the village and represents the most important monument of the town.
STORY
The current church is the result of various extensions. The original church, dedicated to the "Beatissima Santa Maria Vergine Assunta" (Blessed Virgin Mary of the Assumption) was built in the first half of the eleventh century, when Netro still belonged to the diocese of Vercelli and depended on the Chapter of Santo Stefano of Biella.
The first version of the church had a single hall, with a single apsidal nave.
When and through which steps the church was brought to its present size is difficult to say. It is probable that the transformation already began in the late Middle Ages, to cope with the increase in the number of faithful present in the community. The expansions would have been completed during the fifteenth century, as attested by both an inscription on the façade dated 1523 and the frescoes in the central apse, dating back to the first quarter of the fifteenth century.
In the second half of the sixteenth century a chapel dedicated to San Giulio was added on the right side.
In the seventeenth century the seat of the parish was transferred to the new church in the center of the village and the old church became the cemetery church.
Despite this, it continued to be subject to modifications and updates. The presbytery was plastered (as was often done in those days in the belief it could help prevent the spread of epidemics) and a stucco frame was added. On the left another chapel was added, dedicated to Our Lady of the Rosary.
At that time the left apse was dedicated to St. Gratus, the right one to St. James the Greater.
In the eighteenth century the main door was rebuilt.
In 1926 a strong storm knocked down the 1716 bell gable placed at the top of the facade, but it was rebuilt already in the same year.
STRUCTURE
The church has a gabled facade strengthened on the corners by large blocks of granite and crowned by a small bell tower. In the center of the wall, the outline of the original church can be clearly recognized, of the same shape but much smaller. The hanging arches placed under the junction of the roof of the first version of the church are still visible.
The facade is made of river pebbles, stones and bricks, but the distribution of the materials and the construction technique are not homogeneous. In particular, it can be seen that a herringbone arrangement predominates in the upper left part of the facade and that the limit of this area forms a continuous line with the upper right edge of the shape of the old facade. Does this mean that the left aisle was first added to the original church to give an intermediate church with two aisles and that the right aisle was added only later, so as to arrive at the current structure?
At the center of the facade there is an oculus, added later. There are three entrances, with the central one having an all-round arch at the top, while the lateral ones are rectangular. There are also traces of frescoes. In particular, in the central panel above the central door we can recognize traces of a trinity perhaps from the second half of the sixteenth century and in the left half the remains of a late Baroque quadrature. Finally, there are also two ancient tombstones, one on the left corner engraved (in Latin) "This church is by right of the patronage of the Community of Netro" and the other on the right half (Fig. 4), engraved "1423, Giovanni Bocheto ".
The central portal bears the date 1737 engraved.
The left perimeter wall has remains of plastering (and traces of a fresco of a quadrature), unlike the right one, which is in exposed brick and stone. In the latter there are two oculi, later additions, and the outline of what was once the Chapel of San Giulio is still recognizable.
The three rear apses appear to be built with the same materials as the facade. The central one is the oldest, dating back to the eleventh century. It is embellished by a horizontal brick band that runs just below the roof. The left one is from the late Romanesque period, while the right one dates back to the thirteenth century.
The interior is entirely plastered. The three naves are delimited by circular section stone columns, also plastered, with a double torus base and completed by a plinth and a ring capital. The roof is in wooden trusses. As often in Romanesque churches, the interior is very poorly lit, as there are only three oculi and two windows in the central and right apses.
The central apse has preserved an important part of its frescoes. In the apsidal basin, inside a frame formed by a colorful band, there is a blessing Christ Pantocrator surrounded by the symbols of the Four Evangelists (the so-called Tetramorph).
On the upper part of the wall of the apse there are also the twelve apostles, represented in full figure and uniquely identifiable thanks to writings above them. Finally, in the lower part, a velarium is recognizable. The frescoes in the central apse probably date back to the first quarter of the fifteenth century. However, the artist who painted them (the frescoes are attributed to the workshop of Domenico della Marca of Ancona), as was often the case for the frescoes made in small country churches, followed models that were still late medieval aand which in the cities were in vogue centuries earlier, i.e. no later than the twelfth century.
Unfortunately there is nothing left of the frescoes that surely originally decorated the other two apses.
On the right wall we can still recognize the remains of a probably votive fresco from the early sixteenth century depicting two saints that cannot be identified with certainty (Fig. 3).
Finally, the fifteenth-century stone stoup placed immediately on the right as you enter also deserves to be mentioned.
Categories: Places of historical value of artistic value
Via Rubino, 13896 Netro BI |
Cemetery church of Santa Maria Assunta: Further pictures in the section Photography |