Santi Faustino e Giovita: Two Historic Churches in Emilia-Romagna
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.7
- Popularity
- Very Low
- Country
- Italy
- Primary era
- Medieval
- Eras represented
- Medieval, Early Modern, Modern
- Civilizations
- Italian
- Site type
- Religious
- Remains
- Church
On this page7 sections
History
Santi Faustino e Giovita is the shared dedication of two Roman Catholic churches in Italy, one in Monfestino near Serramazzoni in the Province of Modena and the other in Montefiorino. Dedicated to Saints Faustinus and Jovita, traditionally regarded as early Christian martyrs venerated together particularly in northern Italy, the churches preserve medieval origins and later architectural and artistic changes.
Monfestino origins and development
The church at Monfestino, also known as Mons Faustini, is mentioned in documents preserved in the archive of Modena Cathedral in 1034 and 1126. It was then a small noble oratory within Monfestino Castle and was not included in the earliest lists of churches in the Modena area. The castle successively belonged to the Balugola, Da Savignano, Contrari, and Boncompagni families.
The date when the church acquired its present dimensions is uncertain, although its facade and side portal indicate a fifteenth-century phase. An inscription on the main entrance is dated 1639, and parts of the interior also belong to the seventeenth century. Two bells dated 1616 and 1656 remained in the bell chamber until 1933, when they were recast.
Later changes at Monfestino
Near the end of the nineteenth century, the single-nave church was remodelled in the Neoclassical style. Interior paintings and the exterior plaster were restored during the second half of the twentieth century. A major intervention, completed in 2018, improved the structural stability of the building and restored the exterior plaster. The church remains a parish church within the Serramazzoni vicariate of the Archdiocese of Modena-Nonantola.
Montefiorino church
A church dedicated to Santi Faustino e Giovita at Montefiorino is mentioned in 1304. The present building dates from the fifteenth century and was refurbished in the seventeenth century. Its main portal carries the date 1639, linking the surviving building to a later phase of alteration and renewal.
Remains
The two churches preserve different physical and artistic expressions of the same dedication. The Monfestino building stands on elevated ground a short distance from the castle, while the Montefiorino church retains paintings associated with its religious identity and local setting.
Monfestino church and bell tower
The Monfestino church has a gabled facade made of exposed stone. Its entrance portal is framed by sandstone pilasters and closed by a semicircular arch. A circular oculus appears above the portal, with a large single-light window aligned above it to illuminate the interior. Beside the church, on its left, stands the bell tower. The bell chamber has four single-light windows, and the tower is topped by a two-pitched roof covered with curved terracotta tiles.
Inside, a single nave is widened by four lateral chapels. The apse has a semicircular plan, its walls are fully decorated, and the nave is covered by a barrel vault, a continuous semicircular ceiling. The presbytery, the area surrounding the main altar, is slightly elevated. Liturgical adaptation carried out between 1980 and 1990 retained the original altar, made of scagliola, a polished plaster used to imitate marble, and gilded wood, together with the historic tabernacle.
Montefiorino artistic remains
The Montefiorino church contains a seventeenth-century canvas showing Saints Faustinus and Jovita, with the contemporary town and castle represented in the background. On the counter-facade, the interior wall opposite the main entrance, is a sixteenth-century Madonna of the Rosary by Ascanio Magnanini.
