|
The Parish of Saint Sigismondo. The first historical notice of a Church dedicated to Saint
Sigismondo is quoted on documents of 1177. The Church is one of the
most beautiful and very conserved testimonies of the Late Gothic
Pusterese (thanks to the repairs and upkeep made in the last
years), destination of pilgrimages of sovereigns and noblemen as
you can verified on the written that is on the back of the
Altar by the Sigismondo Archduke: Hic Sigismundus Dux. Begun from Master
Friedrich from Falzes in 1449, but finished only towards the 1489
from Master Valentin Winkler from Falzes, its building was supported
by
the Sigismondo
Archduke.
The
Lateral Chapel, of 1513, was built on the place of the ancient Church,
it has star-shaped vaults and the arcades of connection with
the aisle only later on have been bunged, while the building that
is 32 metres long and 10 metres wide, is built with large windows
and portals pointed curvature, these last ones splayed, while for
the outside was used the granite of Falzes. The inside is
characterized from a polygonal choir with the aisle
particularly high with vaults like honeycomb, the cornices are based on
semipillars, the keystones are round or square
shaped: those of the choir are painted, attributed to the school of
Michael Pacher and represented Patrons Saint, the symbols
of the Evangelists and the Madonna in Throne. The nave introduces
scenes of the Escape in Egypt, the Massacre of the Innocents, Saint
Christopher, the Four Fathers of the Church, Saint George and Saint
Sebastian . The construction of the belfry is sure dated before the
rebuilding of the' 400; the decoration is in squared blocks stone
in which ogival windows are opened on two plans.
The beautiful fresco of the facade, similar in the style to the
Danube school, with
a devotee in the inferior zone, represents the “Pietà” inserted between
two columns with corinzio capital in a mountain landscape. On the
side exposed to south, in an arc of triumph, Saint Christopher is
represented, with rich renaissance costumes. The saint is between far
away mountains and the sea where fantastic beings symbolize the defects
and two mermaids play one the bagpipe and the other a
hand-organ. On the shore a hermit seats in front of a
Gothic Chapel situated near a characteristic “maso pusterese”.
Such fresco, dedicated from the judge Peter Troyer, is
considered the most beautiful of the first renaissance in the
region, and is attributed to painter Ulrich Springenklee, student of
Albrecht Durer (to whom they attribute frescoes of the '
Trinkstube' in the near-by Brunico ). Even if heavily repainted, it's
beautiful on the south portal the representation of Three
Virgins of Maranza that have crowns different made and have
sweethearts and devout men near their feet. The Ernst Archduke, uncle
and educator of the Duke Sigismondo, after to have taken possession in
the 1438 county of the Tirolo,
ordered in one of the workshops of Brunico the wonderful
altar with
 little
doors (coming from the more ancient church). It must be considered
the most ancient wooden altar preserved intact in the
Tirolo. The Group of the Crucifixion is upper the coffer in
which there
is Maria with the Child in the center while to sides there are
Saint Giacomo and Saint Sigismondo, Patrons of the Church. In the
predella there is Maria who introduces the child after the birth. Upper
the predella “The Cristo Doloroso” is represented while the short
sides are adorned with the crests of the offerers. The little
doors of the coffer are painted inside with the
history of the Salvation and outside with figures of saints
while those of the predella have to the outside Saint Maurice and
Saint Orsola and inside the martyrdom of the King Sigismondo, of
his second wife and the sons as well as The Massacre of the
Innocents. The neogothic greater altar, placed in the lateral Chapel,
was realized in the 1857 from the sculptor Lapper di Natz, while to the
1875-1880 are dated the two Lateral Altars, the housing
of the chorus, the rest of the furnishings and the pulpit that rests on
a granite pedestal. The chandeliers, to shape of three storey small
houses, were made in the first half of the 1600's in gothic
style in a part and in renaissance style in the other part. From the
church are coming the votive statue in wax of the Earl
Leonardo from Gorizia (transferred in the 1897 to the Landesmuseum
Ferdinandeum in Innsbruck) and the votive table Jaufenberg of the
1410, attributed to Giovanni from Brunico (conserved in the Art
Gallery of the Abbey of Novacella).
English Version:
Rossella Rosa |
