Chiesetta di San Martino a Pieve

The Little Church of San Martino at Pieve is a Romanesque chapel dating to the Ottonian era. First used as a baptistery and later as a cemetery chapel, it preserves painted decoration and furnishings from several periods.

Why it matters

The chapel served the scattered communities of Primiero as a baptistery and later as the burial-ground chapel. Its long religious use is reflected in the layers of its architecture, paintings and furnishings.

What to notice

The east-facing gabled façade has a painted frontispiece and an architraved portal bearing the Scopoli family arms. Inside, a single nave ends in a semicircular apse beneath a round arch. Fresco fragments include Saint Martin, the Last Judgement and Archangel Michael; the apse depicts Christ with the symbols of the Evangelists. The coffered wooden ceiling was made in 1674 by Giorgio Moena. The chapel also contains a stone baptismal font and a reliquary set into the altar.

Context and history

Paintings on the south wall include a Baptism of Christ by Leonardo Capochiesa of Tonadico and a Madonna with Saint John, accompanied by the date 1559 and the Welsperg arms. The Comune di Fiera di Primiero carried out structural restoration in the 1990s. Excavations in 1999 uncovered sixteenth-century tombs and artefacts; work around the altar also revealed a niche containing a parchment and bones.