Church of Sant’Apollonio Vetere

The ancient parish church dedicated to Sant’Apollonio Vetere is strategically positioned on the hill that overlooks the village of Pezzaze. Built on the ruins of a pagan temple and planned in 1480, the church was completed in 1517. Today very little remains of the ancient construction. In fact, the structure that we can see today corresponds to nothing more than the apse and the presbytery. The ancient building was 54 metres long and more than 20 metres wide, as was written in the ancient chronicles of Pezzaze: “37 passi di lungo e 14 di largo” (37 steps long and 14 steps wide). Two side chapels, the beginning of the naves, the sacristies and the bell tower built in 1533 of the church’s original structure are still visible today. In 1958, following consolidation and maintenance works, valuable frescoes, defined as “very important pieces of Brescian Renaissance” were uncovered under 18th-century layers of slaked lime.
The Church of Sant’Apollonio Vetere is one of the stages of the “Via del Sacro e dell’Arte” of the Ecomuseum of Valle Trompia – The Mountain and Industry.