As I’ve been to Northern Italy many times in the past, I had covered most of the primary World Heritage destinations across Lombardy and Veneto on different trips. This most recent trip was about catching up on some of the lesser-known WH properties. One of them was the serial site recognizing the kingdom of the Longobards, a Germanic tribe that conquered and ruled most of the Italian peninsula in the VI-VIII centuries CE.
Even though the Longobards gave Lombardy its name, just two out of seven locations of this site are in Lombardy (and the other five are not within a day-trip reach from Milan – as far away as Friuli to the East and Umbria, Campania, and even Apulia to the South). I couldn’t fit more than one of those two into my itinerary, so I picked the one in Brescia because I have not been to Brescia before, and figured I’d also explore the city a bit.
Somewhat counterintuitively, the boundaries of the inscribed Longobards area in Brescia are heavy on the Ancient Roman history. They encompass the Archaeological Park of Roman Brescia along with the sprawling Santa Giulia museum complex located in a Benedictine monastery built by the Longobards, as well as a stretch of the street that connects the two. When you enter Museo di Santa Giulia, you encounter a variety of Roman-period artifacts, such as reliefs, mosaics, and other decorative elements. If you, by then, already spent time at the archaeological park, you may have questions about what it all has to do with the Longobards in the first place.
Not that the museum collection is not worth perusing. There is even a Roman villa in one of the spaces, with quite a few magnificent mosaics and wall paintings in situ.
Eventually, progressing through the museum circuit, you reach the section devoted to the Longobard period.
On display here are tools, weapons, jewelry, housewares, and other artifacts from the era…
… as well as fresco fragments dating from the same times.
The pièces de résistance of the Santa Giulia monastery complex are two churches situated within its walls. The first is Basilica San Salvatore.
Founded in 753, at the tail end of the Longobards’ rule, it is one of the richest examples of their influence on ecclesiastical architecture and art, with many brilliantly preserved stuccoes and frescoes throughout its nave and apses.
I find painted churches very hard to step away from.
A look at San Salvatore from one of the monastery’s inner yards.
Another yard exhibits a few much less-preserved wall frescoes and is home to the church of Santa Maria in Solario.
Enter the church, and you are in for another visual treat. Although Santa Maria in Solario dates from several centuries after Charlemagne had established his kingdom’s supremacy over that of the Lombards, the church is the other undeniable highlight of the museum complex. Its upper hall is incredibly decorated and further headlined by the Cross of Desiderius, an early-Carolingian – in other words, directly following the Lombardian period – example of goldsmith’s art, adorned with 212 gemstones, cameos, and glass paste elements.
We are now on the aforementioned street – known as Via dei Musei – that connects Museo di Santa Giulia with the Roman archaeological park and lies within the boundaries of the World Heritage property.
The Roman ruins consist of the Forum presided over by the remains of the 1st-century CE Capitolium.
A large Roman theater stands to the right of the above perspectives. Although I walked to the fence, I could not find a good angle to take a picture, and there was no access beyond the fence.
The Forum area is free to enter, and there are a couple of inner spaces in the Capitolium accessible with the same entry ticket that allows access to the Santa Giulia museum. You can find more frescoes, statue fragments, and other remains typical of an ancient site.
As far as I understand from my research, the Brescia component of the Longobards WH property is the most extensive, while not necessarily the most representative. It actually remains unclear to me after visiting here what had been so special about this particular kingdom in this particular period in time that it deserved a WH recognition in the shape of several far-flung fragments.
On the other hand, I certainly enjoyed what I saw, and I may not have even come here if it were not an inscribed World Heritage property. So, a win in my book.
A few glimpses of the center of Brescia will follow in a separate installment.