Churches on the Primiero

On the church façade can still be seen traces of a large painting dedicated to San Cristoforo, the patron saint of travellers, and a plaque in memory of don Pietro Fuganti, the 19th century bee-keeper curate, to whom the Natural Park has dedicated an info spot at Pian della lotta, about 15 minutes away from here. The greatest surprises however come from the interior, entirely covered by frescoes: during the centuries various wall paintings were layered one on top of the other, and a very careful and difficult restoration work is now required in order to uncover them.
On the façade interior wall, a Last Judgement: on one side the Blessed, carrying in their arms the pious souls to paradise, on the opposite one the horrid representation of hell, with a monstrous Lucifer gathering the souls of the wicked, pushed forward by scary devils. This terrible vision, as also the Baptism of Christ above, are very ancient wall paintings (X - XI century) brought to light during a first phase of the restoration works. Along the right wall runs undamaged a long coeval painting: on the lower register, the clamours of war of the knights in full armour on their steeds, confronting each other at the foot of a towered city, are in contrast with the peaceful Adoration of the Magi on the upper register. Here too the colour is laid in thick and bold strokes: there is no perspective and the figures are out of proportion, but what really mattered to the artist and the faithful of the time were the truths conveyed by the intense images and strong tones.
Near the small side door, a 16th century Ecce homo, with Christ flogged and covered in blood before Herod while a group of evil persecutors stands around him, appeared before the restoration works: now it has been removed (strappo method) in order to bring to light the lower more ancient frescoes. Beside the holy arch, a hieratic figure dated to 1404: it is San Silvestro, as the writing above tells us (the patron saint of Primiero, to whom is dedicated the little church perched on the rock, at the valley entrance). This fresco covers in part an Annunciation, placed on the holy arch pendentives, which can be dated back to the first medieval phase. In the apse, to be noticed a central Dormitio Virginis, a scene with the Virgin Mary dying surrounded by the apostles, and the cycle continues in the conch with the Assumption of Mary, gloriously welcomed by the Holy Trinity. The XVI century series of paintings is completed by a few lively scenes crowded with figures, landscapes and urban views, of clear Venetian hand, representing different moments of the martyrdom of SS. Vittore and Corona. The frescoes are ascribed to Girolamo da Pordenone who completed them in 1577 – as stated in the damaged scroll beside them – thanks to the patronage of the Scopoli family, rich notaries of the valley, here remembered by their crest, a four-leaf clover on a red background. The XVI century paintings cover other, more ancient works, perhaps even a Last Supper which comes through here and there, to be dated back to the time of the first paintings. On the north façade we can notice a St. Martin giving away his mantle, a large St. Victor on horseback and fragments of a XIV century Last Supper.
The church of San Vittore in Tonadico, after these last restoration works, will present itself like a true casket of pictorial art, a worthy companion to the homonymous and imposing sanctuary built on Mount Miesna to protect the city of Feltre. The visit of the church will be possible after works completion.

The church can be reached from the hamlet of Masi di Imèr, after more than an hour hard but pleasant walk, or more easily from Passo Gobbera, in about half an hour.

The little church (965 m.) can be seen all lit up at night, perched on the rock from which it dominates the Schenèr Valley, main entrance to Primiero.
The restoration works of a few years ago seem to confirm the hypothesis that the church was built in the late XIII century. Excavations conducted through the floor allowed to retrace the structure’s four successive developments, from the XIII century up to the latest works carried out in the XIX century.
The church has always been a point of reference for the whole valley community, and the XIII century Primiero Charters even quote the collis Sancti Silvestri as a place where it was not possible to build anything without the authorities specific permission. In other words this was a place perceived by people as special, to be protected and visited at some times of the year, as it is today, with public processions: on 31st December, feast of the patron saint, on 1st May and on Easter Monday. The people of the near Vanòi valley used to come up in the past to the saint and ask him for the sun, especially when it rained no end, spoiling the harvests. A XVIII century document mentions something quite peculiar: this church – and those of San Vittore in Tonadico, San Giovanni and Santa Romina in Mezzano – together, draw up a cross on the landscape, called crosèra in the local dialect, as if to symbolically consecrate the valley.
The dedication to pope San Silvestro perhaps comes from the fact that the church was situated on a border area, rough and with no easy access, covered in thick woods, a truly impenetrable silva (forest); alternatively, the pope’s name may have replaced that of a sylvan deity (of the woods), worshipped on the hill before Christianity came to Primiero.
Legend has it that Primiero’s people wanted to built the church somewhere else down the valley, but the stones laid out for construction kept mysteriously being moved over to the rock, until the small sanctuary was finally built there.
The church preserves in its small XIII century apse a fresco with Christ Redeemer in a mandorla bathed in light, surrounded by the four evangelists zoomorphic figures, a work realized by Rocco Naurizio in 1544, as a scroll hidden behind the altar reports; this frescante belonged to a family of artists who also worked on San Giovanni. To Marco da Mèl (1540), a painter from Feltre, are to be ascribed the frescoed scenes of St.George’s life and martyrdom, now unfortunately covered in large part by subsequent layers of plaster, and waiting to be restored. In summer the church can be visited during mass, every first Monday of the month at 8.00 a.m.

Built at the beginning of the XVI century by order of the Scopoli family, it remained the family property up to the XVIII century, when it was donated to the Mezzano community. The small church was built to give peasants and charcoal burners, who worked in the area for many months every year, easy access to a place of worship for Sunday mass. Dedicated to St. John the Baptist and St. John the Evangelist, it was through the years the destination of crowded processions from Mezzano on 24th June, the feast day of the patron saint. After a solemn celebration, the participants were offered a simple meal, first at the expense of the founders and later of the municipal authorities. The church has a nice interior, enriched by a wooden altar. In the apse are painted a series of saints around a Grieving Christ, in the arms of Mary and St. John the Evangelist. Among them can be seen St. Onofrio, half naked, St. Rocco and St. Sebastian invoked against the plague, St. John the Baptist and St. Leonard, patron saint of prisoners, holding chains in his hands; in two painted niches on the sides are St. Romina and St. Corona. In the apse conch used to tower – but the painting is now damaged – a Christ Redeemer within a luminous mandorla, surrounded by the evangelists in their animal forms (only a bull holding the Gospel in its hoofs, to represent St. Luke, is still visible), following an iconography dear to the frescanti of the Naurizio family, who worked here in 1524. They proposed this theme time and time again, at San Silvestro in Imèr, San Giacomo in Tonadico and in the small San Martino church in Fiera di Primiero. Over the paintings were carved names, dates and brief sentences by the faithful who came here through the centuries. This is not the action of vandals of the past, but rather that of worshippers who believed they were so addressing the saints more directly. Occupying the holy arch pendentives are an Annunciation and a scroll with the painting’s date.
The church’s painted walls were entirely restored about ten years ago. The building is usually closed, except on 24th June, the feast day of the patron saint.

The simple structure of the building bears witness to its venerable age: only the perimetral walls foundations and the square stone altar are left. This is the area’s most remote church and it always suffered from maintenance problems: already in 1515 the bishop of Feltre forbade all liturgical celebrations, because the small shrine was in precarious conditions. But then the necessary restoration work was carried out and there is mention of processions with solemn mass, followed by lunch, taking place twice a year until 1782, when a final bishop’s order came into effect, banning any further sacred rites in a by now derelict building.
The Mezzano community tried to prevent its final decay in 1873, organizing a public subscription for the church restoration. There was a poor response and the building was definitely abandoned: vestments and church plate were moved elsewhere and the church slid into a progressive decay. A few years ago members of the Alpine Corps cleared the ruins area and placed here a plaque.
There was a series of reasons why the valley people built this church: on that particular grassy saddle met the paths running from Primiero to the Lòzen valley, where the Mezzano community owns pastures and alpine dairy farms and the peasants used the small church during the long months they had to stay there. As the valley economy changed and also the routes, the small church found itself cut off from the religious attention of the valley people, and although they handed over its memory (this church corresponds to one of the vertex points of the crosèra, mentioned in connection with San Silvestro), they forgot about its maintenance.

Since time immemorial there has always been on Alpe Vederna a big wooden cross, but only in 1941 was launched a project to build a small place of worship for the families who spent summer on the Alp, engaged in haymaking and the care of rye and flax fields. In May 1942 they had 4,222 lire ready, plus a design by Francesco Schweizer (very much like the San Giovanni’s one) and the go ahead from the Trento Curia, but the precipitous war events induced the authorities of the time to make the community postpone the work.
Once the conflict was over, everything seemed to start all over again: people at first thought of a sacred aedicule but then settled for a small church. There was now a different architect and a different design: the author was Albino Doff Sotta. The church was obviously to be built on the crós saddle. The community commitment to the project was total and in 1947 the church was completed: the whole work came to cost about one million lire of the time, with much labour given for free, a piovéch. On 5 September 1948 the chapel, complete with bell, was inaugurated in a solemn ceremony and dedicated to the Madonna della Neve.
It is a brave building, reaching for the sky with its wooden pinnacle soaring over the belfry. Furnishings and paintings were also taken care of: solemn frescoes were painted in the small apse by Fracalossi, an artist from Trento. They portrayed the apostles Peter and Paul, patron saints of the Imèr parish, St. Vigil patron saint of the whole Trento diocese and St. Simonino, with two large angels at the sides. These paintings however are no longer visible because thirty years later, during some maintenance works, they were plastered over and on the apse’s conch Roberto Endrizzi painted in oils a Madonna della Neve, against the background of a wintery Alpe Vederna.
The largest turnout of local people and tourists is registered on the Madonna’s feast day, the first Sunday in August. In summer the church is always open.

From the Assunta’s church in Pieve (the oldest hamlet of Fiera di Primiero) we take the steep Melàs road and after three hairpin bends and about 10 minutes walk we can see, rising against the sky, a wooden cross and a chapel.

It is a small private chapel, built in honour of Our Lady Help of Christians, situated between the village and the masi (alpine farmhouses) in the meadows. It probably goes back to the XVII century and time has left its marks on it. On the outer walls plaster are carved the initials of peasants who happened to pass by and more recently of tourists. The interior shows a tempera painting by Narciso Zanolin dated to 1946, which seems to cover an older sacred conversation scene, a blessing God Father in the clouds with the Holy Ghost dove against a starry sky. Where the colour fell down, bits of the underlying painting are seen coming through. Outside, a lovely panoramic spot lets the eye sweep from the Vette Feltrine to the peaks of Val Canali.

After arriving at Passo Cerèda (1,369 m.), we go up a dirt road leading to the basin of malga Fossetta. At just a hundred meters from the pass is a small esplanade with the church.

It was built in 1913 according to the will of many peasant families who spent summer in the surrounding masi and malghe (alpine farmhouses and dairy farms). The pass has always been a transit point for the Primiero communities and for those of the upper Mis valley, which then opens towards the Agordo area. Everybody helped in carrying the stones needed for the work and the small shrine is now perceived as their own even by the great-grandchildren of the original founders. Inaugurated in 1914, it was then dedicated, after the First World War, to St. Anthony of Padua, the patron saint to turn to in any circumstance. The altarpiece in honour of the saint, hanging over the dignified altar, is the work of Major Pomo from Trieste: he started painting it in Primiero in 1914 and then – at the outbreak of war – took it to Vienna, where he completed it, donating it later to the church. A solemn celebration takes place in Cereda the Sunday following the feast of the patron saint, on 13th June. In summer, mass is celebrated here every Sunday morning. For visits at other times of the week, please apply to the Rifugio Cereda on the pass.

Just before Valmesta, between Primiero and San Martino di Castrozza, we turn left at a junction in the direction of RifugioDismóni. After two kilometres on tarmac road we arrive at the esplanade next to the refuge, where we can leave the car. We go down a dirt road for about a hundred metres, ignoring the first turning to the right and taking instead the next one, with the metal bar. After a short, steep walk we arrive at the panoramic plateau hosting the church.

Placed in front of the Pale di San Martino, the church was inaugurated in 1995 by Cardinal Joseph Bernardin, bishop of Chicago and the son of Italian immigrants from Primiero. The church was built following the request of the neighbouring farmhouses owners and is characterized by svelte and essential lines. Inside, over the holy arch, is a wooden Christ on the cross, to the left a sculpture with the Sacred Heart of Jesus, on the nave’s right a painting with Our Lady Help of Christians, and two wooden polychrome statues placed in niches beside the holy arch: one represents Santa Barbara and the other a Madonna and child. In the apse we can see a towering Last Supper, in a somewhat naif style. The church is usually open on Sundays.

From San Martino di Castrozza we follow Via Fosse and then the path along the torrent Cismon: in 45 minutes we reach the Ex-cimitero di guerra (former war cemetery) and ist chapel (1,620 m.). The place can also be reached (5 minutes walk) from the national road SS50, 2 km after San Martino in direction Passo Rolle.

At the end of the First World War, it became necessary to gather the remains of the soldiers who died on the mountains and in this cemetery were buried 489 bodies, mostly of Italian soldiers, but also men of various nationalities who fought with the Austro-Hungarian army, more than 200 of them nameless. In the Thirties the bodies were taken to the great ossuaries in Veneto and the former cemetery was abandoned: fir trees grew among the empty graves and only a few finely engraved tombstones were left. The small chapel seemed heading for final decay, until the San Martino group of the Alpine Corps decided at the beginning of the Eighties to clear the cemetery, invaded by the wood, and restore the small chapel. Now it is possible to visit the area, and understand the effects of that terrible conflict, fought in the mountain gorges and the trenches dug on the Lagorai’s peaks.
The cemetery is going to host a plaque with the names of the fallen soldiers who had been buried there and it will also gather the plaques of alpinists who died in the mountains.

As we reach the Pass at 1,980 metres altitude, 9 km away from San Martino, we can immediately see the small church, built just above the first hotels, next to the ski runs.

It was thanks to the stubbornness of hotelier Giovanni Segat from Passo Rolle that this little church, in the shadow of the Cimon della Pala, was first conceived and then designed and built. In 1939 he started the building work, after applying for planning permissions and contributions (3,000 lire from the San Martino Priory benefice fund), meeting himself a large part of the expenses. Finally, on 15th August 1942, the church was consecrated and opened to worship. The resourceful hotelier looked after the shrine, making sure it was properly guarded, taking care of maintenance work (in the Fifties were fitted the stained glass windows by Giuseppe Parisi), and acting as a sacrist during the religious celebrations which took place on the Pass. The church is usually open on Sundays.

Project, texts and coordination by Luca Brunet
Photographs by Foto Studio Longo, historical pictures from the archives of Giuseppe Maerjld and L. Brunet
Printing and typesetting by Tipolito Leonardi, Imèr, July 2002

Floriano Nicolao, La chiesa di San Silvestro, Imèr parish, 1982
Giovanni Pezzato and Enrico Cavada, La chiesa di San Silvestro supra montem posita, in “Voci di Primiero”, year LVI, January 1997, No.1
Floriano Nicolao, Le Chiese di San Giovanni e Santa Romina nel territorio di Mezzano, Venice, Mezzano parish, 1984
Floriano Nicolao, La chiesetta della Madonna della Neve sul Monte Vederna, Trento, Alpine Corps - Imèr group, 1998
Laboratorio del Tempo, ...Pictor Pinsit, Transacqua and Fiera Municipal Authorities, 1997
Luciano Brunet, La chiesetta al Passo Rolle, in “Voci di Primiero”, year LI, July-August 1992, No.78

Thanks are due to the parish priests of San Martino and Fiera di Primiero for making available their parish archives.
For any further information please refer to Fiera di Primiero library, tel. 0439 762344.