San Dalmazzo

SAN DALMAZZO

Go back to the steep road that leads to the church of San Dalmazzo. You will find yourself in the so called Rizettu, with several ruined buildings where people used to store food during the Middle Ages. The area includes also the residence of Asplanato, Megia, where some of the women accused of witchcraft were detained. The whole area was completely destroyed during the last world war; most of the inhabitants were forced to move elsewhere, while others were hosted in temporary shelters.  

Walk beside a public fountain and under the arches of former Palazzo Capponi-Massa and you will reach a small square where you can enjoy a beautiful view.

The San Dalmazzo Church, already mentioned in a document dated 11 March 1261, was built near a fortress described by the historian Giovanni Verrando. Scanted remains are left of the fortress today, like the cistern and some other parts that are now inside the Capponi-Massa residence. 

 

The Church has a single entrance. It used to host two confraternities, the Confraternita delle Madri Cristiane and the one of San Dalmazzo.  The objects that used to be inside the church were moved to the oratory of San Giovanni Battista, like the painting showing San Giovanni da Matha who was the founder of the Ordine dei Trinitari, together with San Felice di Valois. Two statues were also moved: one representing San Dalmazzo, made in 1839 by the Genoese sculptor Paolo Olivari and a more recent one representing the Immacolata Concezione.

During some recent restoration works, a fresco was found with no artistic relevance but with historical importance. Under the emblem of the Capponi family, there is an open book with this sentence: 

 D. Guliermo Caponius aromatarius/hoc opus pie legavit/e D.I. Ioes Bapta diligenter ad implevit/Temp.D. Antoni Capponi Prioris/1632”. Two women and a man are praying and a castle stands in the middle of the painting; it might have been the old fortress of San Dalmazzo.

Categories