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Church of Sant’Apollinare
Monticello
After the convent of San Daniele, continuing past the ancient Fonte delle Acque, lies the hamlet of Monticello. It represents a unique reality compared to the rest of the municipal territory, to the point that it would not be an exaggeration to call it “the hamlet that isn’t there.” Visitors approaching these hills for the first time cannot immediately identify the village; instead, they enter a vast nativity scene where various houses appear scattered about. The center consists of an old tavern, the small church, and a square featuring a monument to the fallen of the First and Second World Wars.
Looking back in time to the 1950s and 60s, one discovers that Monticello had over 600 inhabitants, two elementary schools, two village festivals, three essential goods stores, five taverns, and a fervent parish life. Over all this, however, loomed great poverty, the driver of a strong wave of emigration that halved the population in just a few years. The more remote origins of the small hamlet, however, date back to the presence of an ancient castle belonging to the noble De Monticelli family, which was destroyed in 1253 by Ezzelino da Romano.
The church dedicated to Sant’Apollinare was built on that same site, with records of it dating back as far as 1275. Over the years, the church was expanded several times: at the end of the 16th century, in the early 18th century, and in the 1930s. For centuries, the village was a rural municipality with its own statutes, governed by a council headed by a dean. It was only suppressed in the early 19th century following the Napoleonic reforms.
In the nearly thousand-year history of Monticello, the village’s identity is preserved more in the memories of those born and raised there than in material things. Here, history has passed through on tiptoe, and the more attentive tourist can capture a part of the village’s ancient identity by visiting its most evocative spot: the churchyard of the original little church.
rural church
Church of Sant’Apollinare
The solitude of the place allows one to disconnect from everything: below, the great plain with small bell towers planted like pins to mark the presence of many villages; to the side, the long staircase descending into the woods to the unusual “altare salvego”; in front, the Church itself and the bell tower which, in two elegant inscriptions, specifies its date of birth (1709) and how closely this rural church is linked to the land (“With the joint effort of the rector and the people I arose and raise my peak to the stars” and “Winter destroyed the vines, the olives, the figs, the walnuts, and the fruits that fertile Africa produces”).
Leaning against it, the facade of the church is adorned with three statues by Orazio Marinali: in the center, resting on a throne of clouds, the Virgin has a hint of a smile that makes her face enchanting, flanked by John the Baptist and Saint Apollinaris. To complete the work, the rectory once stood adjacent to the church, but on September 10, 1913, a fire destroyed it completely. Two decades later, the new wing of the church would rise from those blackened ruins; while meeting the need for expansion, it significantly altered the spaces. Once inside, this is confirmed: the 20th-century addition should be mentally set aside.
Imagine entering through the old portal to grasp the original layout of the small church. From the 16th century, only the nave towards the ancient high altar and the small sacristy remain. Ideally entering through the old portal, the visitor is struck by the high altar with its rich white marble scrolls and the small tabernacle that stands out for its Baroque lines. The altarpiece adorning the altar is the work of Costantino Pasqualotto and depicts St. Apollinaris, St. John the Baptist, St. Agatha, and St. Lucy witnessing the Assumption of the Virgin, surrounded by angels and cherubs.
The Chapel of the Rosary opens onto the nave, with its altar decorated with precious marble inlays. Of interest in this altar is the small tabernacle door, where an oil painting on copper depicts a Deposition against a night background with a few brilliant brushstrokes. Dominating everything is the 18th-century section, featuring magnificent canvases painted by Costantino and Giacinto Pasqualotto, set into the wooden coffered ceiling. The ceiling canvases follow a precise arrangement: at the corners are the four pillars of Christianity, the Evangelists, flanked by the great Doctors of the Church (Bonaventure, Thomas Aquinas, Augustine, and Jerome); then some of the most popular episodes from the Gospels (Christ’s Entry into Jerusalem, The Expulsion of the Merchants from the Temple, The Good Samaritan, The Prodigal Son, The Samaritan Woman at the Well, The Beheading of St. John) leading to the center with the Glory of the Saints in Paradise, culminating in the celestial sphere surrounded by the Trinity. It is unknown who hired these artists—among the greatest exponents of the 18th-century Vicenza school—or with what donations they were commissioned to complete such works in such a tiny village, but it can certainly be said that of all the churches in the diocese, none has a ceiling comparable to that of Monticello.
But Monticello is not just its splendid church, its people, and its patronal feast; in every season, it is an ideal territory for easy excursions through woods and cultivated fields to discover fountains, wash-houses, wells, gullies, sinkholes, caves, and abandoned quarries—all typical features of the Berici Hills, wisely scattered across these hills that are distinguished by their gentle slopes and how their promontories, like the fingers of a giant hand, caress the plain.
The ideal time to visit the church is on holidays because, for a decade now, the parish priest has not resided in Monticello, and the church doors open regularly only for Sunday morning Mass at 9:30 AM. Sacred and profane rediscover their ancient fervor during the annual festival of the Patron Saint, held on the third Sunday of July. For one weekend, the village reunites, and one can savor foods and atmospheres that can only be found in “a village that isn’t there.”
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