{"id":997,"date":"2026-07-30T13:10:39","date_gmt":"2026-07-30T11:10:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/medievalsicily.org\/projects\/santa-maria-di-campogrosso\/church\/"},"modified":"2026-07-30T13:10:39","modified_gmt":"2026-07-30T11:10:39","slug":"church","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/medievalsicily.org\/en\/projects\/santa-maria-di-campogrosso\/church\/","title":{"rendered":"Church"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Santa Maria di Campogrosso<\/a> \u00b7 subpage<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Church<\/h1>\n\n<\/div>\n\n<\/section>\n\n\n\n
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The chronology of the church, established on the basis of written sources as the second half of the 11th century, has been questioned by architectural historians. Heinrich Mathias Schwarz, a German art historian, argued for a later chronology of the church, shifting the construction date to the 13th century (the Swabian period); however, the church is said to have already fallen into decline within that same century, which makes his hypothesis doubtful (Schwarz 1942\u20131944, vol. VI).<\/p>\n

In 1950, Mario Guiotto, director of the Office for the Protection of Monuments in Palermo, presented his doubts concerning the 11th-century chronology of the church of Santa Maria di Campogrosso during the 7th National Congress of the History of Architecture in Palermo, also drawing attention to possible rebuilding phases (figs 13, 14, 15). In his view, some architectural elements, such as the buttresses, may stylistically date from the 13th century (Guiotto 1950, p. 3).<\/p>\n

In 1979 the work Monumenti della Sicilia normanna, by Guido di Stefano, was published. The author states that, according to the written sources concerning the church of Santa Maria di Campogrosso, the building can be dated to the end of the 11th century, but the analysis of the architectural styles employed seems to contradict such an early chronology (Di Stefano 1979, pp. 30-31). According to Vladimir Zori\u0107, who carried out a detailed analysis of the mason’s marks, comparing them with the set of marks from the cathedral in Cefal\u00fa, some 50 km away (Hubbard 1898), we are dealing with two building phases, falling mainly within the first half of the 12th century (Zori\u0107 1989, pp. 575-579).<\/p>\n

In 2015 the first trial excavations were carried out, aimed at reconstructing the plan of the building in chronological stratification and at reconstructing the cultural context of the periods before, during, and after the church’s use. The work began with the exploration of a small trench, with an area of 9 m\u00b2, laid out on the outer side of the south apse wall. The cognitive potential of the site was demonstrated both by the burials discovered and by the relatively large number of pottery sherds found (296 fragments).<\/p>\n

In subsequent years, the churchyard cemetery, the remains of which had been discovered during the 2015 trial excavations, was progressively explored. As a result of all the excavation campaigns carried out so far, 35 burials have been discovered, including 12 graves that survived intact. The skeletons of buried infants and women were uncovered in the cemetery. Their presence may indicate that this part of the cemetery was probably used mainly to bury lay persons. The significant social position of the buried individuals may be suggested by the form of some of the uncovered graves and by their proximity to the church’s southern wall. Closest to the wall, a monumental stone structure and a stone grave of anthropomorphic shape were discovered. The origin of the deceased is also intriguing. Some of the buried individuals may have come from northern Europe, as suggested by their tall stature, unusual for the inhabitants of Sicily at that time (more in the cemetery tab).<\/p>\n

The excavation work also covered the area inside the church. Trenches were laid out in the area of the presbytery, the transept, the south apse and the main nave.<\/p>\n

The plan of the building, prepared on the basis of surveys and photogrammetric scanning by Dr Anna Kubicka, differs in detail from those published to date (Guiotto 1955, p. 6; Oliva 2008, pp. 106, 111), all the more so since previously unknown architectural elements were uncovered during the excavation work, such as the pillar of the chancel arch, two hitherto unknown buttresses, a fragment of a cross vault together with its keystone, and stairs leading from the transept to the presbytery.<\/p>\n

The surviving remains of the church allow it to be reconstructed as a single-nave building with three apses. The walls of the nave and transept, visible to this day and founded directly on the bedrock, were built in a single phase. This is confirmed not only by the analysis of constructional details, but also by the mason’s marks discovered on the stone blocks.<\/p>\n

More than a hundred of them have been successfully read, classified by form into a dozen or so groups. Some forms of the marks correspond to the shapes of marks discovered on the stones used in the construction of the cathedral of Cefal\u00f9, but also of the Castello Maredolce in Palermo and the Castello Maniace in Syracuse. At the same time, however, these are universal forms occurring across Europe within a broad spatial and chronological horizon (Terreno 2016; for more on the marks see Dionigi 2009; Piras 2012). The inventory and analysis of the masons’ (stonecutters’) marks preserved on the stone blocks of the south wall confirms the hypothesis that we are dealing with a single-phase building; there can therefore be no question of major rebuilding in the modern period, hypotheses of which are also found in the literature on the church of Santa Maria di Campogrosso. A clear division into two zones within the building’s south wall \u2014 a western one, in which the mark E predominates, and an eastern one, dominated by the arrow motif \u2014 indicates the involvement in the construction of at least two groups of masons, or the use of two different batches of building stone from different suppliers. The function of the marks remains a problem to be resolved; in this case they are most probably makers’ marks (of piece-rate workers). This does not mean that some of them did not carry particular symbolic content. From this point of view, the analyses carried out for this type of mark on Romanesque churches of the Iberian Peninsula appear interesting, even if the interpretations proposed by the author of that survey seem to go too far (Bozal 2013).<\/p>\n

We still have few clues for reconstructing the upper part of the building. The existence of buttresses provides an indication suggesting a vault on transverse arches or a cross vault. In the southern part of the transept there was undoubtedly a cross vault bound by a keystone, which was discovered in 2017.<\/p>\n

The discovery of the remains of a pillar supporting the chancel arch may indicate the existence of a tower at the crossing of the nave and the transept.<\/p>\n

Churches with a similar plan found in southern Italy are generally dated to the second half of the 11th or to the 12th century, such as San Filippo Fragal\u00e1, San Giovanni Vecchio di Stilo, San Nicolo in Sciacca, Santa Maria di Terreti, San Giovanni degli Eremiti and San Giovanni Theristis. The form of the church of Santa Maria di Campogrosso, however, shows closer links with western European architecture, unlike other contemporary churches of western Sicily. Should the early chronology of the complex under study be confirmed, it would be the second oldest church in the Palermo area, alongside the church of San Giovanni dei Lebbrosi.<\/p>\n

On the basis of the research carried out so far, the interior of the church can be divided into three zones: A \u2013 the nave zone; B \u2013 the zone of the transept and the south apse; C \u2013 the presbytery zone. Layers were found here relating to the period before the construction of the church (zone A); the period of construction (B); use for sacred and subsequently secular purposes (A, C); the period of demolition (A, B); and the period of falling into ruin up to the present day (A, B, C).<\/p>\n

Phase I \u2013 the period before the construction of the church. This phase is associated with layer SU 11, already known from the cemetery area. It formed the occupation level during the period of the church’s construction. In many places it was removed right down to the bedrock \u2014 in the area of the transept, the apses and the presbytery during construction, but also again during demolition. It was therefore only possible to reach it in the area of the nave, where the demolition work sometimes stopped at the level of the lime bedding beneath the floor.<\/p>\n

Phase II \u2013 the period of the church’s construction. In the trenches inside the church, no traces of layers associated with the construction process have survived. They were most probably removed during the demolition of the floors. Only in a small section of the nave was it possible to uncover fragments of the floor bedding.<\/p>\n

Phase III \u2013 use of the church for sacred purposes. Only in a few places (trenches 10 and 14) was it possible to discover the surviving remains of the lime bedding beneath the church’s floor (pavement?) lying above it. Unfortunately, as mentioned above, the demolition very often reached right down to the original bedrock. Layers from the period of the church’s use before its desacralisation have therefore generally not survived. In most cases, with the exception of the presbytery, they were completely removed. In trenches 10 and 14, however, traces of secular use survived \u2014 the remains of outbuildings (SU 2 and SU 3).<\/p>\n

Phase IV \u2013 the destruction of the church. This phase is associated with the infill layers (SU 2 and SU3). The layers in the trenches located inside the south apse (trenches 3 and 12) formed the infill of the building’s interior, consisting of stone rubble, the remains of the wall structure, sand and mortar. Beneath the fine stone rubble lay the infill from the collapse of the walls and the stone vault (SU 2). Right above the bedrock, remains of stone blocks bound together by a keystone, decorated with a floral relief, were found among the rubble. At the centre of the flower was an iron pin. In trench 12, above the bedrock, at a depth of more than a metre, beneath the rubble, a burnt layer was uncovered (SU 3). In this layer a medal bearing the image of Saint Anthony of Padua was found. Analogous medals were found during the excavation of the church of Maria SS. degli Agonizzanti (a 17th-century church located in the very centre of Palermo), which are dated to the 17th century. In trench 4, situated in the area of the transept and the presbytery, a very similar rubble layer (SU 3) was recorded, consisting of stone rubble, mortar fragments, sand and larger stone blocks originating from the church wall.<\/p>\n

Phase V \u2013 after the destruction of the church. In all the zones distinguished, these were rubble layers with traces of sporadic use, covered by a layer of humus. Establishing a precise chronology for the rubble in the area of the transept, the presbytery and the south apse is very difficult. In the trenches discussed, a total of 657 pottery sherds were found, coming from kitchen and storage vessels, which are not good chronological markers. On the basis of written sources, the formation of the rubble can be dated to the 16th century. A 17th-century medal found in the burnt layer beneath the rubble seems to shift this moment of the church’s demolition to the 17th century. However, post-medieval medals are poorly studied, and their chronology may also be presented differently in the literature.<\/p>\n\n<\/div>\n\n<\/section>\n\n\n\n

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\u2190 Powr\u00f3t do Santa Maria di Campogrosso<\/a><\/p>\n\n<\/div>\n\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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