Lombard architecture

The Longobard architecture is made up of all the architectural works made in Italy during the reign of the Lombards ( 568 – 774 ), with a residual stay in southern Italy until the X – XI century ( Langobardia Minor ), and commissioned by the kings and Lombard dukes .

The architectural activity developed in Langobardia Maior has been largely lost, mostly due to successive reconstructions of the sacred and profane buildings built between the seventh and eighth centuries . Apart from the Longobard Temple of Cividale del Friuli , which remained largely intact, the civil and religious buildings of Pavia , Monza or other localities have been extensively remodeled in the following centuries. Thus only a few architectures remain intact, or because they are incorporated into successive enlargements – such as the church of San Salvatore in Brescia ) – or because they are peripheral and of modest dimensions – such as the church of Santa Maria foris portas in Castelseprio .

Testimonies more faithful to the original form are found, however, in the Langobardia Minor. In Salerno the palatine chapel, now part of the archaeological complex of San Pietro a Corte , was the throne room of Arechi II inside the building he built in the VIII century on the remains of a Roman thermal plant. In Benevento there is the church of Santa Sofia , a large stretch of the walls and the Rocca dei Rettori , the only surviving examples of Longobard military architecture, while other testimonies have been preserved in smaller towns of the Benevento duchy and in Spoleto .

A set of seven places full of architectural, pictorial and sculptural testimonies of the Longobard art , included in the serial site ” The Lombards in Italy: the places of power (568-774 AD) “, was inscribed on the List of World Heritage Sites of UNESCO in June 2011.

Historical context
After the fall of the Roman Empire of the West , several villages from northern Europe settled in the Italian peninsula, mixing with the indigenous population. On the other hand, the successors of the Eastern Empire , the Byzantines, exercised control over part of the territory: Veneto , Croatia , Bosnia and Herzegovina .

For some centuries, as a result of the pressure exerted by the invasions of huns and birds , the Germanic tribe of the Longobards had a very violent relationship with other Germanic peoples of Central Europe. Lombards cross the Alps in 570 and 578 are already installed in Italy, just released from the ostrogoth domain. Although they had converted to Christianity, as the glasses, they continued to maintain their ancestral customs, in some way primitive and wild. Its laws, codified and already settled in the Italian peninsula and lightened slightly by contact with the Romans, are the most coercive among contemporary and indicate a high level of crime within their society. Despite the proximity of Rome and the Ravenna exarchate, the Longobards continue to cling to the Germanic traditions , largely avoiding their influences.

They never succeeded in occupying the entire Itálica peninsula – the papacy controlled the area of Rome and a Byzantine exarchate in the Veneto – nor the larger islands in the west – Sicily , Sardinia and Corsica (the latter in French territory today in day) – also controlled by the Byzantines, and the kingdom of Lombardy was always divided into two clearly individualized areas: Langobardia Maior , corresponding to Northern Italy to Tuscia (present-day Tuscany ) and mainly controlled by the kings established in Pavia , and the Langobardia Minor , in the center and south except for the ends of the peninsulas of Calabria and Apulia .

The kingdom was structured in several duchies , whose autonomous tendencies lasted until the fall of the kingdom to 774, albeit in a progressive regression in favor of royal power . Despite political fragmentation, the kingdom was basically homogeneous in cultural factors . Certainly, Longobarda society maintained characteristics and evolutionary lines common throughout the kingdom, favoring the development of an art of peculiar features.

The Lombards , the German elite that had taken control of the territory, formed a restricted military aristocracy , which consciously pursued a policy of clear segregation regarding the great majority of the population, of Roman affinity (referring to the Roman Empire ) and / or Catholic . Over time, discriminatory customs grew tempered, especially after the conversion to the Catholicism of the Bavaria dynasty . The seventh century was marked by this progressive approach that, in parallel to a wide blend of social hierarchies , in the eighth century led to an integration that, although never fulfilled, allowed the participation of the different components of the kingdom in the development of Lombard art. So much so that it is not possible to differentiate the ethnic-cultural origin of the artists.

The artistic development of the religious, civil and military architecture of Longobarda was influenced, with multiple contacts, by other European traditions. Particularly narrow were the repercussions of the closest geographic frameworks, initially the derivation of models and subsequent pollution to new and original expressive forms, the Paleo – Christian tradition of Rome and the Byzantine settlement established in Ravenna . In the European context, similar evolutions of models and inspiration -political, but also cultural and artistic- of the Byzantine Empire are stated, while with the French Kingdom the flows of knowledge and styles have, above all, a reverse sense

Notably, in the religious sphere, it was the push given by various Lombard sovereigns – Teodolinda , Luitprand , Desideri – to the founding of monasteries , instruments that served both by political control of the territory and Catholic evangelization of the population of the kingdom . Among these monasteries founded in the Longobard period, it emphasized the abbey of Bobbio , founded by San Columbà, today totally restructured.

Characteristics
The most ancient edifices built by the Lombards in Italy, and in particular in their capital, Pavia, have been destroyed or largely renewed in later times. Some trends, which usually ran in different ways from the Roman and Palaeo-Christian architectures predominant in Italy up to late Antiquity, have been identified from archaeological studies or other sources. The destroyed church of Santa Maria in Pertica at Pavia, for example, had a typical Roman plan (octagonal with an ambulatory delimited by columns) but very high central body was a novelty. The Baptistery of San Giovanni ad Fontes, in Lomello, also departed from the typical Palaeo-Christian compactness in the use of a tall central octagon. As it had been in Roman times, the commission of lay and religious buildings was used by the Lombard elite to express their prestige and to legitimate their authority.

In the 7th and 8th centuries the Lombard architecture evolved in an original direction, with increasing references to Classical art. This trend, characterized by the co-presence of different influences and the adoption of new techniques, culminated in the reign of king Liutprand (712-744), in particular at Cividale del Friuli. Edifices such as the Lombard Tempietto in the latter city, or the Monastery of San Salvatore at Brescia show echoes of the contemporary architecture in Ravenna. In this period, the construction of monasteries received a particular impulse, not only as places of adoration or as shows of faith of the commissioners, but also as shelters for the latter’s assets and persons and as sites of political control. King Desiderius (756-774), and with him numerous dukes, gave a particular boost to this trend, which had no direct comparison in the rest of Europe at the time.

The development of Lombard architecture in northern Italy was halted by the conquest of Charlemagne in 774. In southern Italy, still partly under effective Lombard domination, architecture followed original lines until the conquest by the Normans in the 11th century. This unity is shown in particular by the most important Lombard edifice in what was Langobardia Minor, the church of Santa Sofia at Benevento: built in the 8th century, it follows the same pattern of Santa Maria in Pertica with an elevated central body, although mitigated by Byzantine elements such as the articulations of the volumes and the basic structure itself, perhaps inspired by Hagia Sofia at Constantinople.

When they arrived in Italy in the late 6th century, the Lombards had no architectural tradition of their own. They thus relied on local workforce, taking advantage of the presence of organizations and guilds capable of high level works, which had been kept alive thanks to the relative survival of the urban civilization in Italy after the fall of the Western Roman Empire (differently from most of contemporary Christian western Europe).

Longobard architecture in the Langobardia Maior

Pavia
The most important center of Lombard culture was Pavia , capital of the kingdom from 625 to 774 , where, however, most of the buildings erected between the seventh and eighth centuries were destroyed or underwent radical changes. However, along with the architectural fragments preserved in the civic museum , there are still some graphic reconstructions and some still visible remains.

Founded in 677 and now destroyed, the church of Santa Maria in Pertica owes its name to the ancient Longobard tradition, of pagan ancestry, to honor with warriors driven in the ground ( perticae , in fact) warriors fallen in distant battles . A circular plan, it had a ambulatory that formed a ring, delimited by six columns . The central body, unlike other round-shaped basilicas like those of Constantinople or Ravenna , was extremely slender and was the most immediate reference for subsequent architectures, such as the Palatine Chapel of Aachen or the Church of Santa Sofia in Benevento . A Lombard example of the same type survived until today is the baptistery of San Giovanni ad Fontes , in nearby Lomello .

The main religious building of Pavia in the Lombard period was the church of Sant’Eusebio , already built as Arian cathedral by Rotari ( 636 – 652 ) and later fulcrum of the conversion to the Catholicism of the Longobards initiated by Teodolinda and later supported, precisely in Pavia, from king Ariperto I ( 653 – 661 ) and from the bishop Anastasio . Of the seventh century remains the crypt , which, although remodeled in Roman times , still shows some capitals , rare evidence of Lombard sculpture that shows a departure from ‘ classical art through original forms inspired by’ goldsmithing .

The remains of the Lombard period of the Basilica of San Pietro in Ciel d’Oro are poor , built according to tradition by Liutprando to house the remains of Saint Augustine and completely rebuilt at the end of the 12th century , and the Royal Palace , the main Longobard Pavese architecture, destroyed in the eleventh century . Completely lost are the Lombard architectures of the Basilica of San Giovanni Battista , built on the initiative of Queen Gundeperga around 635 , and the monastery of San Salvatore , founded by King Ariperto I in 657 .

Monza
The city of Monza was often used as the summer capital of the kingdom, especially on the impulse of Teodolinda , queen of the Lombards from 589 to 626 . The sovereign built a Royal Palace as a summer residence and annexed a palatine chapel dedicated to St. John the Baptist (about 595 ). Soon the oratory was enlarged and transformed into a basilica, always dedicated to the evangelist , which in 603 was undoubtedly already consecrated, so that the Abbot Secondo di Non could baptize the son of Teodolinda and Agilulfo , the heir to the throne Adaloaldo . The palace and basilica were completely demolished between the 13th and 14th centuries to make way for the construction of the current cathedral of Monza ; of the Lombard buildings there are only a few building materials left and a tower included in the apse of the current cathedral. Written sources testify that the basilica had three naves and was preceded by a quadriportic hall .

Castelseprio
Demolished between 1490 and 1492 , also the sacred complex of San Giovanni di Torino by cardinal Domenico Della Rovere , currently the main Lombard architectural monument of Neustria outside of Pavia is the archaeological area of Castelseprio ( Varese ) , ancient and abandoned Longobard citadel . Following the destruction carried out by the Visconti in the late thirteenth century , the Lombard hill fortress , an example of a direct link with the Roman military architecture of the castrum , there are only some archaeological traces, which however allow us to identify a residential fabric that attests the Lombard re-employment of the pre-existing Roman citadel and an imposing city wall .

The foundation of the monastery of Torba dates back to the 8th century; the church of Santa Maria, rebuilt during the Late Middle Ages , still retains clearly visible traces of a square-shaped bell tower, an ambulatory crypt and small remains of frescoes from the original building . The Torrione, already apex of the walls, is still intact; built with recycled material taken from the Roman castrum , it dates back perhaps to the era of the Ostrogoth Kingdom and in the late Longobard age it was annexed to the monastery, which occupied the first and second floor as a burial ground and oratory . At this stage date back the partially preserved frescoes depicting the abbess Aliperga and a Jesus between saints and apostles with an iconography that in some respects that of the Tempietto di Cividale .

The main religious complex of Castelseprio was the basilica of San Giovanni Evangelista with the adjoining octagonal baptistery , restored by the Lombards in the 7th century and now in ruins; the church of Santa Maria foris portas , dating back to the end of the Longobard period, is still intact (but it is possible that the construction is not very late, the first years of Carolingian domination ) and hosting one of the most refined cycles paintings of the High Middle Ages .

Bergamo
In Bergamo , home to one of the most important Lombard duchies of Austria , there are some traces of ancient Longobard religious constructions, largely reworked in later periods.

In Fara Gera d’Adda the Autarena basilica , founded by Autari ( 584 – 590 ), originally had a three- nave basilica structure with walls built in bricks ; of the original building today only the central apse remains, polygonal , externally marked by flat pilasters connected by round arches . Thin single- lancet windows were inserted between the central pilasters of the apse .

In Rogno , in Val Camonica , the church of Santo Stefano Protomartire preserves the Lombard facade dating back to the seventh century, then incorporated into subsequent renovations. The surviving traces allow us to identify a round-sided portal, open in brick in the stone façade, surmounted by three windows (one subsequently walled up), also round and in brick, flanked and of equal size .

Brescia
Among the Lombard monuments of Brescia , the convent complex of Santa Giulia stands out for its architectural value, which includes the church of San Salvatore . The monastery, founded in 753 by King Desiderio (then still Duke of Brescia ) and his wife Ansa , who led the daughter Anselperga as the first abbess , was largely remodeled and enriched in the following centuries, so that the characteristic Lombard style numerous other architectural types have been added, as well as frescoes by Paolo da Caylina . Of the original nucleus is preserved the structure with three naves divided by columns and capitals in part of the classical age and reused in the new building, partly of Byzantine manufacture, partly original creation on site . The church, with a transept with three apses, was entirely decorated with stuccos and frescoes , so much so as to constitute with the Tempietto di Cividale one of the richest and best preserved ornamental apparatuses of the early Middle Ages. In large part the decoration of the crypt, also with three apses, has been partially preserved in the marble liturgical set .

Another Lombard architectural monument of Brescia is the Badia leonense , an ancient Benedictine monastery founded by Desiderio in 758 at Leno with the aim of spreading the Benedictine rule in the area of the Po Valley . Today only the archaeological excavations of the ancient abbey remain, from which various monastic objects have been found .

Cividale
One of the most famous and best preserved monuments of Longobard architecture is located in Cividale , the capital of the important Duchy of Friuli , and is the so-called Lombard Temple . Testimony of the Renaissance liutprandea , was built in the middle of the eighth century, probably on the initiative of Astolfo ( duke of Friuli from 744 to 749 and king of the Lombards from 749 to 756 ) as a palatine chapel , in the place where once stood the gastaldia . When the latter was transformed into a monastery, the temple took the name of “oratory of Santa Maria in Valle”. It consists of a square-based classroom , with a presbytery under a three- arched loggia with parallel barrel vaults . The west side was the ancient entrance wall and here remain conspicuous remains of an extraordinary stucco and fresco decoration; in the frieze on the upper level, freely superimposed on the architectural elements of the building like the windows, stand out six relief figures of saints, in stucco, exceptionally well preserved . The apse was originally mosaic , but today there is no trace of the decoration . The Tempietto is particularly important because it marks the coexistence of purely Lombard motifs (in friezes, for example) and a revival of classical models, creating a sort of uninterrupted courtly continuum between classical art, Longobard art and Carolingian art (in whose workites often worked with Longobard workers, as in Brescia ) and Ottoniana .

Almost entirely lost, still in Cividale, is the episcopal complex dating back to the patriarch Callisto , who in 737 had moved the episcopal seat from Aquileia to Cividale , consisting of a set of buildings that included the basilica, the Baptistery of San Giovanni Baptist and the Patriarchal Palace. The archaeological excavations have returned only a few traces of the architectural works, but have allowed us to recover some of the most refined artefacts of Lombard sculpture , such as the baptismal font of Patriarch Callistus and the Altar of Duke Rachis .

Longobard architecture in the Langobardia Minor

Benevento
Main political and cultural center of the Langobardia Minor, Benevento , capital of the homonymous duchy (principality) from 774 , preserves some of the best preserved architectural remains, thanks also to the autonomy of the Lombard princes up to the eleventh century. Still faithful to the original plan is the church of Santa Sofia , founded in 760 by Arechi II ; the construction of a religious building with a strong monumental impact was part of its prestige policy, which also developed through architectural patronage . Characterized by a central plan and an original structure with stellar niches, it has three apses and remarkable remains of frescoes on the walls. There are many artistic references: on the one hand, the slender central body recalls the tradition of the Longobards already established in Pavia, in the church of Santa Maria in Pertica ; on the other hand, the articulation of volumes reveals dialectical relations with Byzantine architecture . The monumental aspirations of Arechi translated into a complex structure, marked by columns and pillars arranged to form a central hexagon and a concentric decagon . The bases and capitals of the columns are examples of reuse of carefully selected classical age material . Annexed to Santa Sofia was a female monastery, completely renovated in Roman times; from the previous Longobard building only some traces remain in the cloister .

Benevento still preserves a large stretch of the walls and the Rocca dei Rettori , the only surviving examples of Lombard military architecture. The Walls, built between the 6th and 7th centuries and enlarged in the 8th by Arechi II, are founded on a base of blocks of limestone and tuff , while the highest part is an opus incertum of river pebbles linked to mortar , with grafts irregular bricks and squared stones recovered from the stripping of older buildings. Of the walls there are also surviving portions of the Roman walls, with some doors (like Port’Arsa , open on the Via Appia Antica ); in a state of ruin are the towers that interspaced the walls, including the Torre della Catena . The Rocca dei Rettori was the highest fortress in the citadel of Benevento; of the Lombard period remains the Angular Tower , while the rest of the castle is the result of successive remakes. 28 meters high, the Torrione has a polygonal plan and in its walls we can recognize different stones coming from Roman buildings. To the outside there are ogival mullioned windows , while on the terrace there are two turrets .

Minor centers of the Duchy of Benevento
Near Benevento, in Alvignano , the basilica of Santa Maria di Cubulteria is an example of a synthesis between Lombard stylistic elements and Byzantine styles: built between the 8th and the 9th century on the remains of a Roman temple, it has three naves punctuated by brick pillars surmounted from round arches. The interior, extremely linear, is closed by a semicircular blind apse, while on the outside the salient façade is characterized by a protiro and by portals and single-pointed lancet windows, all of which are always in brick .

In the territory of the Duchy of Benevento there was also the sanctuary of San Michele Arcangelo , founded before the arrival of the Lombards, but adopted by them as a national sanctuary from their conquest of the Gargano in the 7th century. After the conversion to Catholicism the Germanic warriors reserved a particular veneration to the archangel Michael , to whom they attributed the warlike virtues once worshiped in the Germanic god Odin , perceived as particularly close to the Lombards from their origins .

Spoleto
In Spoleto , home of the other great duchy of the Langobardia Minor, the monumental inspiration of the Lombard dukes was manifested in the rebuilding of the church of San Salvatore , an early Christian basilica of the fourth to fifth centuries and extensively renovated in the VIII.With three naves, it has a tripartite presbytery covered by a vault with an octagonal base; the interior has lost its original stucco and pictorial decoration, but preserves the rich trabeation with Doric frieze , set on columns that are also Doric (in the nave) or Corinthian (in the presbytery). Of the original 8th century facade, punctuated by pilasters and divided into two orders by a cornice, the rich decoration was lost, except for the window frames and the three portals carved with classical motifs .

At Spoleto, in Campello sul Clitunno , stands the Tempietto del Clitunno . In this case, unlike other Lombard architectural works, the sculpted ornaments are original and not reimpieghi of elements of the Roman age; their invoice, however, fits perfectly into the groove of Roman sculpture , so much so that even Palladio believed that the Tempietto was an original work of the imperial age. It is a tetrastyle Corinthian sac in antis enriched by two side porticoes; on three sides there is an architrave with an invocation to God in square Roman uppercase , a very rare example ofmonumental early medieval epigraphy .

In Ferentillo , in Valnerina , the abbey of San Pietro in Valle preserves the original nave that dates back to the VIII century and two slabs of the main altar, carved in low relief , including the Lastra di Orso .

Other longobards elements

Frescos from Tempietto Longobardo to Cividale
Columns and corinthian braces separate and support three parallel vaults decorated with fresco paintings representing passages from the New Testament .

Pleasures of the basilica of Aquileia
These elements, usually made up of stone slabs decorated with low relief , were placed in the lower part of intercolumns or, in medieval religious buildings, located in such a way that they separate different areas of the worship space.

Other decorative elements

Monumental complex of the basilica of Santo Stefano in Bologna , also known as Le sette chiese . At the center of the “Cortile di Pilato” there is the so-called “Catino di Pilato” (pictured), from the 8th century, with an inscription with the name of the kings Luitprand and Ilprando and of the bishop Barbato.
Ornamental plukus, Roman of Ezzelino ( Vicenza ).
Facade of the 8th or 9th century with vegetal, animal and symbolic elements, among them a tetramorph with sant Mateu represented by a peacock.
Peacock on an 8th century marble slab in San Salvatore, Brescia.

List of structures
6th century
Basilica Autarena, Fara Gera d’Adda (c. 585)
Royal Palace, Monza (c. 585)
Basilica of St. John the Baptist, Monza (c. 585)
Earliest part of the walls of Benevento

7th century
Complex of St. John the Baptist, Turin (c. 610)
Basilica of St. John the Baptist, Monza (c. 635)
Church of St. Eusebius, Pavia (c. 650)
Monastery of San Salvatore, Pavia (657)
Church of Santa Maria in Pertica, Pavia (677)
Enlargement of the Royal Palace in Monza by Perctarit (c. 680)
Baptistery of San Giovanni ad Fontes, Lomello
Reconstruction of the Basilica of St. John the Baptist, Castelseprio
Church of Santo Stefano Protomartire, Rogno
Rocca dei Rettori, Benevento
Sanctuary of Monte Sant’Angelo
Temple of Clitumnus, Campello sul Clitunno

8th century
Basilica of San Pietro in Ciel d’Oro, Pavia (c. 730-740)
Palatine Chapel of the Royal Palace in Monza (c. 730-740)
Episcopal complex of patriarch Calixtus, Cividale (c. 740)
Tempietto longobardo, Cividale (c. 750)
Monastery complex of Santa Giulia with the Basilica of San Salvatore, Brescia (753)
Abbey of Leno (c. 758)
Church of Santa Sofia, Benevento (760)
Walls of Benevento, enlargement by Arechis II (760-770)
Convent of Santa Sofia, Benevento (c. 774)
Monastery of Torba, Castelseprio
Basilica of Santa Maria, Cubulteria
Church of San Salvatore, Spoleto

9th century
Church of Santa Maria foris Portas, Castelseprio (c. 830-840)

Later
After the Frankish conquest, Lombardy again began to develop styles that became trendsetters of European architecture:

Lombard Romanesque, also called First Romanesque, started in the early 11th century.

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