CHURCH OF SAINT GIOVANNI THE BAPTIST - PEDAVENA
Over the centuries there are numerous references to the chapel of Pedavena, one of the six employees directly from the Cathedral of Feltre, in the episcopal documents describing the pastoral visits to the various churches in the area.
Thus in 1587 Bishop Rovellio cites the altarpiece of the high altar, made by a young Francesco Frigimelica, one of the few elements that still remains today of the ancient church rebuilt from the mid-eighteenth century to a design by Antonio De Boni and consecrated on 18 September 1768.
Architecture
The church was rebuilt in the mid-eighteenth century by the beginner architect Antonio De Boni, student of Francesco Maria Preti and designer of the churches of Villabruna and Quero.
The nave is large and bright with four side altars; the decorative elements, such as those in stucco, still refer to Rococo models, while the subdivision of the spaces now looks to the newborn neoclassical style as seen for example from the capitals that support the cornice and frame the side chapels.
Art works
The high altar preserves the Nativity altarpiece made at the end of the sixteenth century by a young Francesco Frigimelica, a painter from Belluno who left many testimonies of his art in the churches of the territory of Belluno. On the walls of the presbytery are hung on the left a small canvas depicting the Passing of Saint Joseph painted in the eighteenth century by an anonymous artist, while on the right you can admire a seventeenth-century Sacred Conversation with six saints surrounding the central figure of the Madonna.
The apse is dominated by an imposing canopy that contains a representation of the Trinity made by Sebastiano De Boni, son of the architect Antonio, designer of the building. A painting by Antonio Crico from the second half of the 19th century with the Madonna and Child, Sant'Antonio da Padova and San Carlo Borromeo decorates the left wall of the nave, while in front is a Deposition from the Cross attributed to the painter Antonio Balestra from Verona.
source: infodolomiti.it
