San Martino, Gothic Revival church in Piazza Brembana, Italy
San Martino is a neo-Gothic church at the top of a four-flight stairway of serizzo stone blocks, its west facade fronted by a portico with three pointed arches, the central one larger. The longitudinal interior has three naves and five bays divided by four polystyle columns per side. Its sixteen lancet windows are polychrome; the largest, on the facade, measures 5.88 m by 2.33 m.
The church is documented from 1260, when a parchment recorded a tax of 21 soldi, and was already a parish by 20 December 1288. In 1360 it appears in Bernabò Visconti's nota ecclesiarum with three clerics and a parish priest. Fifteenth-century works ended with the frescoing of the bell tower in 1480. After a lightning strike on 29 June 1868, a new building was begun in 1869 but collapsed in 1870; it was completed in 1873 and consecrated on 20 November 1883.
The name San Martino Oltre la Goggia refers to the Val Brembana district called Oltre la Goggia, recorded by Giovanni Da Lezze in 1596, when the church was seat of the vicariate of the upper valley's villages. The 1620 contract with Ventura Fanzago for casting the first two bells was signed before notary Fantino Donati and six witnesses.
The church stands at the top of a four-flight staircase of serizzo stone blocks, with its facade facing west. The 1948 entrance porches and the stairway were designed by engineer Dante Fornoni. The building is in Piazza Brembana, serving both the town and Lenna.
The bell tower was built to a design by Mauro Codussi and its fresco decoration was completed in 1480. The church also keeps a wooden eighteenth-century pulpit carved with plant and floral motifs, whose niches hold two statues of the Evangelists; the work originally had four.
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