Church of San Nicola (San Pellegrino Terme)

The Church of San Nicola , dedicated to the Augustinian saint by Tolentino, is a place of Catholic worship, of low place in via Vittorio Veneto, 42, district of the Municipality San Pellegrino Terme. ^[first]

On the upper arch of the presbytery there is the word “Fundatus Erectum McDLXIV”, to indicate its original construction in 1464. His construction was granted with the pontifical bubble of Pope Paul II after it had been made of it both by the inhabitants of Piezzo, who from the Congregation of the Eremitani of Sant’Agostino, and the construction is completed in 1471. The church was initially named in Sant’Agostino as well as the convent, was also commissioned by the Congregation, the then prior of the order, Don Michele Oprandi to its management. ^[first] The church was then dedicated to the Augustinian saint Nicola da Tolentino, who had been canonized in 1446. Even if the town of Piazzo Basso during the Republic of Venice was an autonomous common, the church was always subsidiary of the parish church of San Pellegrino Terme dedicated to the French saint . ^[2]

The convent, with the management of the Church, remained until 1652 to the Augustinians when, due to the always fewer friars, with the pontifical bubble of Pope Innocent x the order was suppressed and the church moved to the Giuspatronato of the Sonzogno family he had Purchased all the premises and houses of the religious community on January 22, 1673, leaving the possibility of celebrating liturgical functions, but transforming the sepulchral tombs of the family tombs. ^[3] While the assets of the convent became ownership of the “Venetian procuratie”.

The church received the pastoral visit of the Bishop of Bergamo Luigi Ruzzini and from his report it is clear that there were three statues of saints placed on the main altar, a lateral altar was complete with the painting depicting the Trinity by Gian Paolo Lolmo and one with the painting depicting the image of the Virgin. The classroom was complete with a barrel organ, the pulpit, a sepulcher in addition to the sacristy where furnishings and liturgical objects were preserved. In 1741 the building was the subject of a first restoration with a new raising or with the renovation of the vaulted coverage, thanks to the testamentary legacy of a subject of the owner family. All the assets of the Sonzogno family, including the Church and the ancient buildings used as a convent, and January 1837, passed owned by marriage, to the Carrara and Sottocasa families who then ceded in the following year, the church, to the manufacturer of the parish of San Pellegrino Terme.

In the last years of the nineteenth century the cemetery was removed which was placed on the ancient churchyard and replaced with the avenue. The twentieth century saw the renewal and remake of parts of the building with the new flooring, new decorations and the raising of the bell tower, equipping it with five bells. On the occasion of these works, an ancient tomb of the Sonzogni family was found with the family emblem: rampant dog with a flower. Subsequently Luigi Angelini designed the new neoclassical facade. The presbytery choir was completed with the wooden choir of the local craftsman Locatelli. In the second half of the twentieth century the new community altar was placed to fulfill the liturgical adaptation indicated by the Vatican Council II. ^[first]

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The cult building is preceded by the tree -lined avenue and the short churchyard with porphyry plates and the main front develops on two unbelieved orders. In the lower order there are two semicircular pilasters on the side to support the broken tympanum that houses the lunetted portal also this supported by columns with triangular eardrum. These dark stone parts create a bichromatic facade. Above the portal there is a bezel with the image of San Bernardino. The upper order is inserted in a slightly broken -down arch complete with a rectangular opening complete with stone outline and broken eardrum capable of illuminating the classroom. The large triangular tympanum concludes the pediment with the title of the church inserted in a circle.

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The unique classroom interior with a barrel vault is with a rectangular plan divided into five spans from fake marble and complete with bases and ionic capitals, which hold the complete trebe of frieze and the practical cornice. The interior is illuminated by six large openings with banners placed above the cornice. The first span hosts the statue of San Bernardino on the right side while the right side is dedicated to the confessional area. The second span has a spinned arch, and retains the painting by Gian Paolo Lolmo La Trinity performed around 1580, and which resumes the work of Lorenzo Lotto Trinità. In the third there are the lateral entrances, while the fourth span hosts the altar dedicated to Maria Bambina on the left and to the right to the Madonna della Cintura.

The presbytery area with a rectangular plan is preceded by the high triumphal arch, and raised by three steps. It has a barrel -vault blanket and ends with the apsidian choir with a complete basin of the wooden choir work of the twentieth century of the local artist Giacomo Locatelli. ^[4]

• Luigi Pagnoni, Bergamo parish churches: notes of history and art , Litostampa Graphic Institute, 1992.