Castel Lambro (Pavia), fire extinguisher pops up on apse of 15th-century church

A fire extinguisher installed in a specially attached box outside theapse of a 15th-century church. This is what happens in the Pavia area, in Castel Lambro, a hamlet of 230 inhabitants in the municipality of Marzano, exactly halfway between Pavia and Lodi. Castel Lambro is a small rural village with ancient houses huddled around its parish church, the church of Santo Stefano Protomartire, formerly dedicated to St. Blaise. Built in the late 14th century as the private mausoleum of the noble Sacchella family, in time it became the village’s parish church, and took on its present appearance between the 15th and 16th centuries (although the church was extensively remodeled in the 17th century with theopening of chapels, the elevation of the medieval bell tower, and other interventions), a period to which the numerous works decorating its interior also date, particularly the fresco cycles, one dating from 1407, in a rather ragged state, with images of saints, another from the first half of the 15th century, with the Crucifixion attributed to Leonardo Vidolenghi and figures of saints assigned instead to his school, one from the mid-15th century, with figures of angels and apostles on the chancel vault, by the school of Bergognone, and a fourth executed between the second half of the 15th and the first half of the 16th century.

The latest restoration funded in full by the Ministry of Cultural Heritage involved most of the interior frescoes and the consolidation of the exterior facades, including the historic plasterwork. On yesterday’s day, the very fire extinguisher appeared on the apse: “not in a discreet corner, by the boiler room, but directly an insipient hand pierced the apse of the baptismal font with a drill and installed in plain sight a fire extinguisher box crowned by a sign stuck with silicone on the plaster,” Mauro Manfrinato, president of the Castel Lambro nel Cuore association, tells us. “Having heard from the parish priest, intimating that the work further impoverishes the building, which is considered a national monument, I expressly pointed out that such totally inappropriate and debasing work be placed in a suitable place. The bewilderment on my part, however, remains, despite the reassurance to the fact that the cassette will be moved, I wonder how one can be totally insensitive about a priceless heritage. The defacement of that box is the equivalent of an act of vandalism such as spray-painting. Lack of culture and blindness to beauty? I can no longer understand.” Manfrinato also let it be known that he had contacted conservation agencies, but they did not know anything about the intervention.

The Castel Lambro parish church appears to be listed (although in the “Constraints on the Web” database it appears as “S. Michael the Archangel”), reasoning that any intervention, even minimal, must be authorized by the Superintendence. Of course, the intervention is reversible: however, indeed, that red stain on the exterior of such a well-preserved ancient church is an affront to the degree zero of aesthetic sense. It is difficult to spur to beauty in the face of such a sloppy and disrespectful intervention on the ancient walls: hopefully it will last as little as possible.

Ambiente Italiano

Castel Lambro (Pavia), fire extinguisher pops up on apse of 15th-century church

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