La presunta "chiesa biabsidata" nel monastero di San Venerio sull’isola del Tino (SP)

Rilettura del monumento da recenti scavi archeologici

Abstract

The origin of medieval churches with two apses has long been a matter of investigation. Upon the rocky isle of Tino, emerging from the gulf of Spezia, once  a monastery under the title of San Venerio did stand. Today, its area preserves ruins believed to belong to a double-apse church. Previous studies had possibly detected a single-hall church, dating back to the sixth or seventh century, to which a second nave should have been added during the ninth century. In consideration of such early dates, it was claimed that the monument was the prototype of double-apse churches across the old diocese of Luni.

New excavations carried out in 2021 and 2022 by the Archaeological Superintendence of Genoa and La Spezia have led to a significant revision of the Tino’s complex. First, the architectural plan does not provide evidence of any double-apse church. Furthermore, the masonry suggests the first half of the eleventh century.

Remarkably enough, in that period, some descendants of the Marquis Obertus invited a monastic community to settle on the renewed island. Therefore, the structure in question may have been a commemorative chapel (memoria), erected by the Benedictines to mark the supposed place of hermitage and death of Venerius: a respected Saint whose cult the monks wanted to be revived in the interest of themselves and their supporters.