Sant’Andrea Apostolo: Cathedral and Parish Church of Venzone, Italy
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.6
- Popularity
- Low
- Country
- Italy
- Primary era
- Medieval
- External website
- Open
- Eras represented
- Medieval, Early Modern
- Civilizations
- Holy Roman Empire
- Site type
- Religious
- Remains
- Cathedral
On this page10 sections
History
Sant’Andrea Apostolo is the cathedral and parish church of Venzone, Italy, dedicated to the apostle Andrew. A small church already stood near the present principal facade in the sixth century, as indicated by archaeological finds. The building belongs to the Archdiocese of Udine and remains the duomo and parish church of the town.
Early Church and Medieval Enlargement
Glizoio di Mels enlarged the earlier church in 1251. The building was then rebuilt in the early fourteenth century under a project devised by Master Giovanni, also known as Griglio of Gemona, who was associated with the cathedral of Gemona del Friuli. Construction began in 1308.
Patriarch Bertrando of San Genesio consecrated the church on 2 August 1338, assisted by several archbishops and bishops. The consecration marked the completion of the major medieval rebuilding that gave Venzone its cathedral church.
Parish Status
At first, Sant’Andrea Apostolo depended on the parish church of Gemona. The parish priest of Gemona appointed a vicar to administer the church at Venzone. Pope Boniface IX, who led the Roman Catholic Church from 1389 to 1404, established Sant’Andrea as a parish on 4 October 1391 and confirmed the arrangement on 11 October 1394.
Under this system, the people of Venzone nominated their parish priest, while the parish priest of Gemona formally invested him. The priest of Venzone also owed Gemona an annual payment of 25 ducats and had to visit the mother church in a procession each year at Pentecost.
Earthquake and Reconstruction
The 1976 Friuli earthquake completely destroyed the cathedral. The bell tower collapsed on 15 September 1976 as a consequence of the earthquake of 6 May that year. Sant’Andrea Apostolo was reconstructed between 1988 and 1995 through anastylosis, a method that reassembles a ruined building from its original architectural pieces. The reconstruction returned the original stones to their places.
Remains
Reconstructed from its medieval architectural pieces, Sant’Andrea Apostolo has a Latin-cross plan with a single nave and a broad, brightly lit transept. Three apses open onto the transept through triumphal arches, and two towers flank the transept. The exterior combines polygonal apses, buttresses, pinnacles, sculpture, and decorated portals, while medieval and Renaissance works remain within the church and its associated spaces.
Exterior and Portals
The corners of the polygonal apses are strengthened by buttresses that rise to pyramidal pinnacles and statues. The cathedral has three portals. The north portal dates from 1308 and carries a high-relief lunette showing the Blessing Christ, made by Master Giovanni. The workshop associated with him produced the high-relief lunette of the Coronation of the Virgin on the south portal.
The principal portal has a mid-fourteenth-century bas-relief of the Crucifixion. Other fourteenth-century statues and reliefs decorate the exterior, along with six paterae, shallow decorative bowls or disks embedded in the building’s outer walls. Together, these elements preserve the sculptural program associated with the medieval cathedral.
Bell Tower
The bell tower contains four bells tuned in the Lydian scale in B2. They are mounted using the Friulian swinging system, a method that allows bells to oscillate. De Poli of Revine Lago cast the original bells in 1962. The tower’s collapse in 1976 broke the first, third, and fourth bells. Capanni of Castelnovo ne’ Monti recast those three bells in 1993, while the second bell survived.
Medieval and Renaissance Interior
The interior contains important fourteenth-century frescoes, including the Consecration of the Cathedral, Saint Martin’s Encounter with the Beggar, and Saint George Freeing the Princess from the Dragon. A stone Vesperbild, a devotional image of the dead Christ supported by the Virgin Mary, is preserved in the right apse.
Above the right-hand portal stands a painted and gilded wooden Lamentation over the Dead Christ from 1530. The group consists of eight statues. The baptismal font, two holy-water stoups, and the tomb slab of the Antonini family date from the beginning of the sixteenth century and were made by Bernardino da Bissone, a Renaissance sculptor from Bissone known for his stonework.
Gonfalone Chapel
The Gonfalone Chapel received an early fifteenth-century fresco cycle attributed to Domenico Lu Domine and Antonio Baietto. Its subjects included the Coronation of the Virgin, the Madonna and Child, and the Blessing Christ. The chapel’s name refers to a gonfalone, a religious or civic banner used by a confraternity or institution.
Mummies and Crypt
During enlargement work in 1647, approximately twenty mummified bodies were discovered. Their preservation resulted from the combined action of calcium-sulfate-rich subsoil and the highly water-absorbing fungus Hypha bombycina, which quickly rendered the bodies parchment-like. Five mummies are now displayed in the crypt of the San Michele baptistery, where they provide anthropological evidence for understanding the way of life of earlier Friulian inhabitants.
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