Churches and worship places

Chiesa di Santa Giustina

Via Chiesa Santa Giustina 39, Schio

Description

It represents one of the oldest examples of Christian evangelization in our territory which dates back to the Longobard period, it was reconstructed in 1581 by the Gian Giacomo and Gian Battista Dal Ferro brothers.

The small rural church of Saint Justina martyr, which is one of the oldest examples of Christian evangelization in our territory, no longer looks like the original, which dates back to the Longobard period, due to its reconstruction in 1581 by the Gian Giacomo and Gian Battista Dal Ferro brothers. The brothers owned large estates in Giavenale, where they built their villa (now Villa Barettoni) and decided to rebuild this very old church that had collapsed. For a long period following its reconstruction, the building was the centre of fervent religious activity but with time it gradually decayed, both structurally and in its liturgical services. In 1890 four solid, angular buttresses were added and in the 1960’s a number of restorations were completed. In 1965 the church was consecrated. It has a simple and sober structure with rectangular plan, the ceiling is trussed and the small semi-circular apse faces north. On the front wall an arched, brick, bell tower, contains a bell made by the Colbacchini foundry in Bassano del Grappa. The lateral walls have only two pairs of windows, while at the centre of the façade, the entrance door has a stone frame with moulded architrave. The interior is articulated in a single rectangular structure with cotto pavement that is almost entirely original. There is a stone altar and an important funerary inscription of the Roman ages dating back to the first imperial period, on the wall to the left of the entrance. The inscription reads Caius Camerius, son of Marcus, quattuorvirus and pontiff, built this for himself and for Terentia, daughter of Lucius. The small church of Saint Justina maintained the peculiar status of a private building, passed on from family to family. In 2003 after Gian Paolo Muttoni’s death, the Municipality of Schio purchased this historic and evocative monument, and restored it.