Chiesa di San Vigilio

The parish church of San Vigilio is where the written history of Moena begins: its consecration in 1164 is the earliest document naming the village. Raised above the old core at Piaz de Navalge, it holds Gothic fabric and major works by Rovisi and Dellantonio.

Why it matters

Few parish churches in the Dolomites carry this much documented past in one fabric. The 1164 consecration, performed by Bishop Adalpreto of Trento, is treated by Moena's official portal as the first written record of the settlement itself, which makes the church the community's founding document in stone. Two later consecrations, in 1216 and after a Gothic reconstruction of the sixteenth century, mark each growth stage of the village.

The church is also a showcase of Ladin artistic life. Valentino Rovisi, a Moena painter active in the eighteenth century, left canvases and frescoes here, while the twentieth-century artist Cirillo Dellantonio designed stained glass, portal panels and a granite relief for the same building. The church preserves works by artists associated with the valley.

What to notice

• Valentino Rovisi's painted image above the main portal.
• Valentino Rovisi's altarpiece of Saint Vigilius, together with his canvases of Saint Anthony and the Last Supper and his fresco of the Institution of the Rosary in the chapel of the right nave.
• The gilded wooden altar made by Valentino Poschiavin in 1715, and the principal altar from the mid-eighteenth century attributed to Martino Gabrielli, with lateral statues by Giovan Battista Pettena.
• The presbytery frescoes by Carlo Donati, painted in a Liberty-inflected idiom that contrasts with the older furnishings.
• Cirillo Dellantonio's wooden crucifix, his drawings for the windows, the wooden panels of the portals and the granite Annunciazione at the main door.
• The three-aisled interior, created by successive enlargements.

Context and history

The first church on this site was consecrated in 1164 by Adalpreto, bishop of Trento; the community re-consecrated the enlarged building in 1216 under Bishop Federico Vanga. A Gothic reconstruction promoted in the era of prince-bishop Bernardo Clesio led to the third consecration in 1534, a date that remains readable on the vault of the presbytery. During the seventeenth century the presbytery was rearranged and the Carmine chapel was added.

The eighteenth century brought the Holy Sepulchre chapel, erected in 1735 and decorated by Valentino Rovisi; it closed an outdoor Way of the Cross and was demolished in 1820, when the nave gained two further chapels. The bell tower was restored in 1727–1728 and again in 1872 at the commune's expense. Between 1929 and 1931, under parish priest don Giovanni Iori and on a design attributed to the Rovereto architect Giovanni Tiella, the church took its present form: the enlargement preserved the Gothic section and the original apse while creating today's three-aisled hall.