https://riviste.unimi.it/index.php/fenestella/issue/feed 2024-03-07T14:46:14+00:00 Redazione / Editing redazione.fenestella@unimi.it Open Journal Systems <p><strong><em>Fenestella. Inside Medieval Art</em> si rivolge ai medievisti che con l’arte intendono fare storia, indagando i manufatti dall'interno, come attraverso una <em>fenestella confessionis</em>.</strong></p> https://riviste.unimi.it/index.php/fenestella/article/view/20529 2024-03-07T14:46:14+00:00 Aurora Cagnana aurora.cagnana@cultura.gov.it

<p>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.</p> <p>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.</p> <p>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 (<em>memoria</em>), 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.</p>

2023-12-29T00:00:00+00:00 Copyright (c) 2023 Aurora Cagnana