Church of Santa Margherita d'Antiochia (building)

**The Church of Santa Margherita d'Antiochia** is a Catholic place located in the municipality of Vernazza. The church was dedicated to the patron saint of the town, built in the Gothic-Ligurian style by the Antelami masters, it stands on the cliff overlooking the town's harbor.

## **History**

### **Medieval age**

According to some sources, a first religious building was built in Romanesque style as early as the 11th or 12th century. The new church was rebuilt, on the foundations of the previous one, by the Magistri Antelami, probably already in the thirteenth century as the building is mentioned, for the first time, in an act dated to the year 1318. Studies and surveys carried out hypothesize that the church originally it must have had a basilica-style plan with three naves with as many apses.

The mention in 1318 came when the Pope gave the building to a priest named Leonardo. The reconstruction in its present form is also generally assigned to this date. In reality, Giorgio Rossini, noting the similarities that the building has with the oldest portion of Sant'Andrea in Levanto, believes that the original construction can date back to the first decades of the thirteenth century.

Others see the use of the black stone in Mesco, in the round arches and in other architectural peculiarities a derivation from models of the Genoese Romanesque architecture of the twelfth century. At least two distinct bodies are easily recognizable by observing both the south side outside and the development of the central nave inside: the medieval one to the east and the Renaissance one to the west which rests on the arch supporting. The church of Santa Margherita became parochial in the 14th century, replacing Nostra Signora di Reggio.

### **Modern age**

Between the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries the building was considerably enlarged, however, destroying the medieval facade and with the construction of two bays per nave and a general increase in volumes. In the eighteenth century and in 1750 the church underwent a new revisitation which covered the Romanesque interiors with Baroque style cladding followed by the replacement of the wooden roof with vaults and the raising of the bell tower; the latter, octagonal and 40 meters high, rests directly on the four pillars of the presbytery.

### **Contemporary age**

According to some pastoral visits from the 16th century, the church of Santa Margherita also had a cemetery, located in the area of Piazza Marconi and immediately adjacent to the apses. In this place buried until 1817, after which the new cemetery above the town was activated. In 1923 the area was freed from the tombs and integrated into the public square, as it is today admired.

In 1908 a series of restoration works began, most of which aimed at restoring the building to its primitive medieval appearance. The carved stone facings were progressively freed from the plaster and the Baroque decorative apparatus eliminated. Among many demolitions, consolidation interventions and some reconstructions, the works ended in 1975 and left the church little different from how it is today.

## **Legends**

* According to a legend, one day along the coast of the town a small box was found in the sea that contained a finger bones of Santa Margherita. Lost during a storm, the relic reappeared again in 1318 in that same place: it was then decided that the church dedicated to the patron saint would rise on the rock in front of the sea. Remodeled and enlarged during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, today it is partially visible in its original structure after the restorations in the second half of the 1900s.

## **Trivia**

* Unlike many churches where the altar resides in front of the visitor, coming from the current main entrance, the altar is placed on the right, as the ancient main entrance resided in front of the altar.

## **Bibliography**

* Castelli medioevali della Lunigiana occidentale in “Giornale Storico della Lunigiana”, a cura di Maria Luisa Scarin, Istituto Internazionale Studi Liguri-Bordighera, 1962.
* Cento conventi-contributi alla storia della provincia francescana ligure, a cura di Frate Alfonso Casini, Genova, Convento della Visitazione, 1950.
* Le Cinque Terre e Portovenere, a cura di Cesare Ferrari, Arte della Stampa - La Spezia, 1952.
* Documenti sulla riviera lunigianese nel Basso Medioevo, a cura di Leopoldo Cimaschi, Giornale Storico della Lunigiana, 1956.
* Storia e parlata di Vernazza, a cura di Irene Di Martino, CENTROSTAMPA, Arcola (SP), 2014.
* Vernazza le trasformazioni nel tempo dell’insediamento e del territorio, a cura di Renata Allegri e Osvaldo Garbarino, LIBRERIA GEOGRAFICA, 2018.
* Vernazza nell’Ottocento, a cura di Giuseppe Rollando, Edizione Parco Nazionale delle Cinque Terre, 2003.
* Vini e vigneti delle Cinque Terre, a cura di Paolo Emilio Faggioni, negli scritti di G. Targioni Tozzetti, G. Guidoni, G. Gallesio, L. Beretta, G. Sforza, STRINGA EDITORE, Genova, 1983.
* Dizionario del dialetto di Vernazza, a cura Francesco Di Martino e Per Giorgio Cavallini, La Tipografia, Levanto, 2021.
* Le poesie di Tofa, a cura di Tofa, Edizione Parco Nazionale delle Cinque Terre, Tipografia Ambrosiana Litografia, 2006.
* Le Cinque Terre: Genesi degli insediamenti, a cura di Giovanni Rolla, Tesi di Laurea in Storia degli Insediamenti Tardo-Antichi e Medioevali.
* Storie e leggende delle Cinque Terre e di Levanto, a cura di Aldo Viviani e Francesco Musante, Edizioni Giacché, 1998.
* Vernazza Amarcord, a cura di Elena Bertozzi.
* Nel territorio della Luna castelli fra terra e mare, a cura di Pia Spagiari, Luna Editore.
* I castelli della Liguria, a cura di Pia Spagiari, Stringa Editore, Genova, 1973.
* Il parco dell'uomo la storia e la pietra, a cura di Attilio Casavecchia e Enrica Salvatori, Edizione Parco Nazionale delle Cinque Terre.
* I canti da Maemuna, a cura di Cristoforo Basso, Giuliano Carro e Andrea Leonardini, Edizione Parco Nazionale delle Cinque Terre.

## **External links**

* Comune di Vernazza website
* Vernazza 5 Terre website
* Parco Nazionale delle 5 Terre website
* Save Vernazza website

## References

this page was lastly reviewd on 15-08-20221. ↑ https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chiesa\_di\_Santa\_Margherita\_(Vernazza)
2. ↑ https://www.lecinqueterre.org/arte/vernazzachiesasantamargherita.php
3. ↑ http://www.parconazionale5terre.it/Epun\_dettaglio.php?id\_pun=1940