Chiesa di San Bartolomeo

San Bartolomeo is Domaso's parish church, also associated with the dedication to Saint Nicholas. A Romanesque bell tower accompanies a building transformed through Renaissance, baroque and eighteenth-century campaigns.

Why it matters

The church brings together painting, stucco sculpture and illusionistic decoration from several generations of regional artists. Its varied chapels reveal successive acts of patronage rather than a single unified decorative project.

What to notice

The bell tower retains Romanesque arches and paired openings beneath an octagonal belfry added in 1506. Inside, Domenico Caresana's 1605 scenes of Saints Peter and Paul accompany an altarpiece by Giulio Cesare Procaccini. Agostino Silva's stuccoes of 1692 enrich the chapel of Saints Francis and Anthony. In the presbytery, Cesare Ligari's frescoes of 1758 depict Saint Bartholomew's martyrdom and a miracle of Saint Nicholas. Felice Biella's painted architecture gives the nave vault a theatrical character.

Context and history

The church is documented from 1247. Major renewal began in 1551 and continued through later centuries. The facade and presbytery vault were completed by 1730, but painting and furnishings continued to develop afterwards, including Ligari's mid-eighteenth-century contribution.