Church San Bartolomeo - Pistoia - Tuscany

The Abbey of San Bartolomeo in Pantano was so named because of the swampy site where it was built. It was founded between 726 and 764 by the Lombard physician Gaidoaldo. In the immediate vicinity was an older monastery of St. Sylvester, also ruled by Columban monks, a title later united with that of St. Bartholomew.

Around the 9th century, the monks accepted the rule of Saint Benedict, passed under the Abbey of Saint John the Evangelist in Parma, and the Marquises of Tuscia took it under their direct protection.

In 1433, the Lateran canons of the order of Saint Augustine, known as Rocchettini, took over. To them we owe the introduction of the custom of performing an anointing on the foreheads of children on the feast day of the title saint, August 24, to save them from the snares of the spirits. In more recent times, popular devotion has added an anointing against diseases, especially of the throat, which is still practiced today; on this occasion, special candies called "crowns" are sold in the form of a necklace with short grains of dough and a large medallion in the center, and it is one of the city's most heartwarming festivities.

The present church shows the forms desired by Prior Buono in 1159, while respecting the typical features of the Romanesque architecture of Pistoia, especially in the facade, decorated with five arches supported by slender columns and bordered by bands of dichromatic marble; the two-tone pattern is repeated in several places in the facade and is reminiscent of other similar buildings in Pistoia. The facade also features remarkable sculptures from the Romanesque period, such as the lions on the corners and supporting the central arch, and an architrave attributed to Gruamonte, depicting the episode of Jesus giving the Apostles the commandments or the Incredulity by Thomas and on which the date 1167 and the name of the client, a certain Rodolfino, are mentioned. The 18th-century Tuscan painter Giovanni Camillo Ciabilli painted a panel depicting Vallombrosian saints.

The interior has undergone numerous additions and alterations over the centuries, which were eliminated in a major restoration between 1951 and 1961: on that occasion a coccio pesto floor was restored, the stone ashlar walls were restored and the single windows were reopened. Traces of the old paintings have been found: in the apsidal dome, on a blue background, is a Christ in Majesty amid saints and angels, painted at the end of the 13th century and attributed to Manfredino di Alberto. The restoration also involved the parapet of the pulpit, which was carved by Guido da Como in the mid-13th century, and the panels by another master that now hang on the wall. The wooden crucifix on the main altar is the work of a sculptor who is close to the style of Giovanni Pisano. The organ, built in 1844 by Filippo Tronci from Pistoia, was restored in 1974 by the firm Tamburini from Crema.

Willem Vandenameele