The ninth-century church of Santa Maria foris portas

Why did this specific building stay upright while the surrounding town turned into a pile of rubble? It was the combination of its location on a hill, roughly 200 metres from the walls of an ancient castrum, and a heavy dose of devotion to the Madonna. The church of Santa Maria foris portas is the oldest building in Castelseprio, the only survivor of the destruction and abandonment of the old fortified village.

Recent physical and chemical tests date the structure to around the second quarter of the ninth century. Inside, the building shows architectural continuity with the paleochristian basilicas of Milan. Nearby excavations have revealed a moat and a large Carolingian tomb, suggesting the area may have served as a funerary zone for local feudal lords, perhaps even functioning as a private chapel after the Carolingian period.

The primary reason people visit is the extraordinarily well-preserved cycle of frescoes in the apse, discovered in 1944. These paintings depict scenes from the infancy of Christ inspired by apocryphal gospels. They display a level of realism and a perspective technique that reflects classical influences. Notably, they depict the Earth as a sphere with a cross on top, a representation consistent with the view that educated people of the time generally attributed a round shape to the Earth.

You can visit the church today within the Castelseprio archaeological park, which includes a museum. As part of the "Longobardi in Italia" serial site, it stands as a testament to the power and artistic continuity of the Lombard era.

Sources: Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons