Chiesa di Sant’Apollinare

The Church of Sant’Apollinare is located along the road from Arco to Ceniga, the secondary road of Prabi.  The church is of very ancient origin. Probably built around the eighth century and dedicated to Sant’Apollinare.

The first documents that report the church is of the fourteenth century. In the second half of the century the interiors are frescoed by artists of the Veronese school. The artists are Giorgio and Giacomo, sons of Federico da Riva. In 1395 it was officiated by ten clerics who resided in a nearby convent.

In 1473 Pope Sixtus IV aggregated the place of worship as a priory attached to the Collegiate Church of the Assumption.

In addition to the church of Sant’Apollinare in the priory were included the hermitage on Mount Velo, the hermitage of Saints James and Sylvester and also the church in Troiana, dedicated to San Lorenzo.

The building in the middle of the XVII century, seen the state of abandonment, is restored in two successive moments. The repairs healed the roof.

She was involved in the suppression of certain provisions of Giuseppe II d’Asburgo in 1782. At the beginning of the following century is again officiated.

In 1882, after having risked being demolished because it was judged of secondary value by the curia of the capital of Trentino. Thanks to the intervention of the archpriest Chini the church is restored. The works brought back the church in normal conditions of use and allowed to enhance the important cycle of frescoes in his room.

It was reconsecrated in 1884 at the end of the work. During the First World War it was damaged and the consequences led to the loss of the frescoes in the apse area.

Exterior of the church

The building, very old, is located on a road that could be a Roman road. Road that from Arco continues towards the small hamlet of Prabi. A detour leads to the climb to the hermitage of San Paolo and continuing on the road you get to Ceniga, a hamlet of Dro.

The main façade is simple, with two pitched huts. On the right side of the building there is a portico that protects, in addition to the side entrance, the frescoes on the wall and an external stone altar. An iron gate encloses the space under the porch. The small bell tower rises in the back of the building.

Interiors

The church has a single internal nave. It is accessed both from the main portal and from the side entrance. The interior is almost completely frescoed with an important cycle of fourteenth-century frescoes by the Veronese school. The only part not frescoed is the apse because it was partially demolished and then rebuilt after the First World War.