Tag: dolmen
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The Parish Church of Gropina and the Lombard pulpit
The Parish Church of San Pietro in Gropina, in the Valdarno, is as bare as a tree shaken by the wind on a winter morning. Nothing shows, except the mighty stone that has stood for centuries. There are no paintings, no colours, only a soft penumbra that pervades the spaces, fills every perspective of spiritual […]
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The Hermitage of Santa Caterina del Sasso
A fascinating sheer cliff, known as Sasso Ballaro, overlooks the shores of Lake Maggiore. The rock slopes downwards with its two hundred and sixty-eight steps. Suddenly, like an ecstatic revelation, a glimpse of infinite beauty appears. The landscape is majestic, and the mountains are reflected like diamonds in the calm waters of the lake; there […]
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The Cross Pattée of the Knights Templar
During the Crusades, soldiers and pilgrims travelling to Jerusalem were used to sew a small cross on their chests or cloaks. However, the term ‘crusade’ was only used long after the first expedition to the Holy Land, probably around 1250 [1], because of this symbol. The cross attested to the condition of martyrdom and sacrifice […]
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The megalithic walls of Alatri, where stone is timeless
The civita of Alatri stood on the slope of a hill above a stream, a branch of the Liri river. There, five hundred metres above the sea level, was the acropolis of the ancient city. Still visible are the quadrangular base of a small temple in Tuscan order, a reconstruction of which is now in […]
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Tempio civico dell’Incoronata and the symbolisms of Lodi
In Via Incoronata in Lodi, in the 15th century known as Contrada de’ Lomellini, there was a brothel. However, the intriguing aspect was not the common practice of erecting such places for the enjoyment of rich citizens, but rather that, just in front of a load-bearing wall facing the street, there was a crowned Madonna […]
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The Lunigiana stele statues
An anthropomorphic figure, which seems to have re-emerged from a forgotten and primitive age of man, stares at visitors with an enigmatic archaic smile. The statue, made of sandstone, has a semicircular head; its stylised face has a simple U-shape, but mysteriously takes on an expressiveness that transcends time, and seems to look into the […]
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The mysterious Christ in the labyrinth of Alatri
Alatri, 1997. During restoration work on a room adjacent to the cloister of Saint Francis church, some colours faded by time emerged from a narrow passage. The building was erected starting in 1220 and its adjoining convent dates back to 1359 [1]. Certainly the unexpected room, lost in the oblivion of time, was probably part […]
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The megalithic area of Saint-Martin-de-Corléans of Aosta
In the history of mankind there are certain places that have been called sacred by ancestors, and from that remote time they remain unchanged in their transcendent hierophany. These are cultic centres that hold testimonies of universal belonging, sometimes monumental traces of our past. They are material testimonies of a lost era, when rites were […]
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The Basilica of San Vittore and the Baptistery of Arsago Seprio
An ancient path led from Milan to Lake Maggiore. There, where the pre-Alpine slopes began to rise and the path was difficult due to the rugged terrain, was Arsago Seprio. This village in the Seprio countryside was of great importance in the Middle Ages cause it had housed a parish since the earliest days of […]