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S. Bartolomeo in Barattano

[image ALT: A single-story rectangular stone building about the size of a small house, with a massive square stone tower rising another couple of stories above the tiled gently sloping roof. A smaller, lower stone building is attached to it on the left; on the right, a very narrow space in which a thin pine tree is growing, reaching a few inches above the top of the tower; then a large stone house with an outside staircase. It is the church of S. Bartolomeo in Barattano, Umbria (central Italy).]

This page is pretty much just a photo album; I have no historical information on the church.

[image ALT: A square tower about 9 meters tall, with two tiny windows, almost slits, about 30 cm tall, on the ground floor and the floor above, and large arched bays in the upper portion. It is the belfry of the church of S. Bartolomeo in Barattano, Umbria (central Italy).] [image ALT: A wooden door, accessed by two steps. It is the entrance door of the church of S. Bartolomeo in Barattano, Umbria (central Italy); it is further described in the text of this webpage.]

The belfry from another angle; the main door. The latter is slightly unusual in two respects: the arch is round but disguised as ogival, a timid incursion into the Gothic style that dates it to something like the middle of the 13c; and the molding is carved to resemble a twisted cloth or rope (close‑up).

[image ALT: The keystone of a small stone arch and the two stones on either side. It is carved with a circular medallion with a border of lozenges, in which a Paschal lamb holds a cross-tipped staff in the classic depiction. It is the keystone over the entrance door of the church of S. Bartolomeo in Barattano, Umbria (central Italy).]

Over the door: Christ as the Lamb. This particular stone also illustrates something of the principle of the arch: if the keystone slips a bit, at least within the plane of the arch, it just wedges tighter; and the arch stays standing.

[image ALT: A fragmentary inscription on an outside wall of the church of S. Bartolomeo in Barattano, Umbria (central Italy), further discussed in the text of this webpage.]

A small fragment of what must have been a fairly long high-medieval Christian inscription, maybe from the original façade, which seems to have been torn up at some point:

. . . DOMIᴎI . . .

The pen is exactly 14 cm long.

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Page updated: 8 Jan 07