The large number of Romanesque churches scattered throughout the territory of the Monferrato is a unique and important cultural and artistic heritage. In addition to witnessing a profound and widespread devotion, their presence often allows a different reading of the territory, according to the ancient settlements and routes of communication of the past.
In the municipality of Aramengo, in the Masio hamlet, ancient “al Maso”, stands the Romanesque chapel of S. Giorgio, located on a small hill dominating the houses of the ancient village.
• Historical news
After a first attestation dating back to 1298, in which “l'ecclesia de Aramengo” is counted among those dependent on the diocese of Vercelli, the building finds an initial confirmation in the local archive in the year 1328, regarding the census of its assets.
Then the church was a parish church, a role that maintained at least until the first half of 1500 and its location, far from the village, highlights the importance that this populous town covered in antiquity.
From a Pastoral Visit of 1573, we learn that it had long been abandoned by the parish and reduced to a cemetery church according to the annexed cemetery. In 1597 the church was unusable, missing roof and floor and the cemetery in total abandonment. In place of the same, since the early 1500s, a new and more capacious church had been erected, on the hill above the village, on the ruins of the destroyed castle and of which today there is no trace.
It is very probable that in this circumstance, in the early 1600s, following the severe state of degradation mentioned, a total recovery of the building took place, with the partial reconstruction of the perimeter walls, the construction of the vault and the erection of the pleasant façade and the belfry.
• Description of the monument
The building, whose construction is attributable between the end of the twelfth and the beginning of the thirteenth century, consists of a single rectangular-shaped hall, finished with a semicircular apse.
The façade, facing south, is simple and elegant; presents a curved pediment with molded overhang, which is inserted, at the height of the cornice, in two lateral pilasters delimiting it. In the center, a delicate portal composed of two pilasters connected to a small composite pediment, encloses the wooden door, flanked by two windows with a round archway.
At the top, in the center of the pediment, there is a curtainsider niche without a statue and further down, under the cornice, a four-lobed opening with a metal grating. On the sloping left of the gable roof, there is a small bell tower with a rectangular section, with edges bordered by curved pilasters. A metallic cross dominates the façade.
The side walls are delimited by two corner pilasters and by two intermediate pilasters that divide them into three backgrounds, each of them has a rectangular opening in a central position.
At the center of the south wall there is a secondary door with arch arched lowered in pale stone blocks; again on this side, two blocks of stone representing two heads, one upside down, indicate the reuse of materials. The masonry is mainly composed of bricks laid horizontally and a few courses of stone in the lower parts. Heavy concrete curbs attest to unhappy consolidation and ligation of masonry (Restoration of 1936, see inscription on pilaster apse, south side).
The apse has a semicircular development, between two pilasters and intercalated by two agile semi-columns in stone, terminated in shaped bricks; still in place a stone capital. The base is in sandstone, while the upper part is crowned by rows of jutting bricks. Intermediate masonry is a pleasant alternation of brick courses with others in stone. Three single lancet windows with an upper arch in light stone lighten the structure.
A series of graffiti, mainly engraved on bricks, contains incomplete funerary inscriptions, in relation to the adjoining ancient cemetery.
The interior presents a rectangular hall with a barrel vault and nailings near the windows. The walls are mainly made of bricks with rare interlayers of stone, in particular the north side. The apse, which is smaller than the hall, is inserted above it by a double triumphal arch. The floor presents the raising of a step near the presbytery area, on which stands a brick and stone altar of recent construction.
Recent archival research has revealed the existence of a funeral crypt, under the church floor, in which the members of some local families were entitled to be buried.
Source: Text taken from the work "ARAMENGO NELLA STORIA" of Beppe Moiso - Aramengo, 2012
For more information:
ttps://www.beweb.chiesacattolica.it/houses/house/48967/Aramengo+%28AT%29+%7C+Cappella+di+San+Giorgio
