Chiesa parrocchiale di Santa Maddalena (Versciaco)

The Gothic Church of St Mary Magdalene stands on a hill in Versciaco, a hamlet of San Candido. First consecrated in 1212, it preserves early frescoes and later work by master builder Andrae Firtaler.

Why it matters

The church is among the oldest documented buildings in the municipality. Firtaler's rebuilding around 1470 transformed the earlier structure into a Gothic church. His name, recorded on the building as “maister viertaller,” is a rare personal mark in the architecture of a village church.

What to notice

Remains of a mural showing St Ursula and her companions survive on the north wall and date to about 1300. A fresco of Mary on the chancel arch is attributed to Simon von Taisten and dated around 1475. Firtaler raised the nave, added a rib vault and replaced round Romanesque windows with pointed openings, while exterior buttresses reinforce the walls.

Context and history

The church was first consecrated in 1212 and remodelled by Firtaler around 1470; the major intervention led to a reconsecration in 1479. Versciaco became an independent parish only in 1891, after centuries under other parish jurisdictions. An eighteenth-century Baroque update was removed during restoration in the mid-1960s, which returned the interior to a more legibly Gothic appearance. A nave bay was added in 1910.