Presunta "chiesa biabsidata" nel monastero di San Venerio sull’isola del Tino (SP)

Abstract

The origin of medieval churches with two apses has long been a matter of investigation. Upon the rocky isle of Tino, emerging from the gulf of Spezia, once  a monastery under the title of San Venerio did stand. Today, its area preserves ruins believed to belong to a double-apse church. Previous studies had possibly detected a single-hall church, dating back to the sixth or seventh century, to which a second nave should have been added during the ninth century. In consideration of such early dates, it was claimed that the monument was the prototype of double-apse churches across the old diocese of Luni. New excavations carried out in 2021 and 2022 by the Archaeological Superintendence of Genoa and La Spezia have led to a significant revision of the Tino’s complex. First, the architectural plan does not provide evidence of any double-apse church. Furthermore, the masonry suggests the first half of the eleventh century. Remarkably enough, in that period, some descendants of the Marquis Obertus invited a monastic community to settle on the renewed island. Therefore, the structure in question may have been a commemorative chapel (memoria), erected by the Benedictines to mark the supposed place of hermitage and death of Venerius: a respected Saint whose cult the monks wanted to be revived in the interest of themselves and their supporters.