SAN BERNARDINO

The church of San Bernardino, ancient rural religious building dedicated to the Franciscan friar Bernardino da Siena, was built in the fifteenth century along the mule track that connected the boroughs of Triora and Loreto, used for pilgrimage between Italy and Provence.

It is one of the primary monuments of the high Argentina valley. On its façade, an engraving represents the coat of arms of the historical local family of the Gastaldi. Inside, you can find valuable fifteenth-century frescoes, originally attributed to the Piedmontese painter Canavesio. More recently, following the latest restorations, the frescoes were attributed to an unknown Renaissance painter with Tuscan origins, follower of the school of Taddeo di Bartolo, Sienese artist known all over the world for the triptych of frescoes he realized in the Duomo of Montepulciano. In Triora, there is a valuable painting by Taddeo di Bartolo preserved in the baptistry of the Collegiate church of Nostra Signora Assunta.

The frescoes represent demons, heretics and unrealistic human figures to depict the themes of the final judgement and of Christ’s Passion: on the top are, on the left, the devil eating men and, on the right, the archangel Gabriel weighting the souls before they enter Paradise or Purgatory. On the bottom there is a representation of Hell divided in seven circles, each of which is destined to a capital sin. On the far right there is a representation of Limbo, populated with children who died before they could receive baptism.

Right beside the church is an extraordinary exemplar of horse chestnut (Aesculus hippocastanum), which, in virtue of its presumed age of 175 years, of its height of over 20 metres, and of its girth of 310 centimetres, was inscribed in the list of Monumental Trees of Italy, together with other 92 exemplars counted and protected in Liguria, among which another two horse chestnuts that grow by the church of Sant’Agostino in Triora and a sycamore (Acer pseudoplatanus) situated in Case Abetin, above the hamlet of Realdo.

The church is surrounded by wide pasture meadows, frequented by small herds of bovines and equines as well as by several flocks of sheep and goats. The meadows are alternated with shrubberies and groves of deciduous broadleaves, inhabited by numerous animal species, in particular mammals and birds, which can be seen especially in the first hours of the day and at sunset, such as the wild boar (Sus scrofa), the Eurasian jay (Garrulus glandarius), the blackbird (Turdus merula), the robin (Erithacus rubecula), the badger (Males males) and the fox (Vulpes vulpes).

In late spring, moreover, the pasture meadows colour up with numerous flowerings, among which some of noteworthy value, such as the orchids.