NIGEL'S RAMBLES: Beauty and the Beasts

Tuesday, January 20, 2015

Beauty and the Beasts

This Sunday I decided to explore in the car an area of the Apennines in the Province of Modena to see if it had any potential for walking.

My first stop was at the beautiful Romanic “Pieve” in Rocca Santa Maria perched high on a rocky outcrop, dating from the eleventh century.

Pieve di Rocca di Santa Maria, Serramazzone,MO

On entering one is struck by the narrow nave and the low massive columns, giving rise to an optical illusion of great overall height . The capitals of the columns have some fine carving.

Pieve di Rocca di Santa Maria, Serramazzone,MO

The second place I visited was Parco San Giulia, a monumental park above the village of Monchio.

A series of stone sculptures was commissioned to record the massacre of 136 civilians carried out by the Wehrmacht in 1944 in the villages around Monchio in reaction to the founding of the Partisan Republic of Montefiorino. These wonderfully abstract sculptures are by 14 different artists from Italy and around the world. The unifying theme of these sculptures is of an external violence exerted on the stones that resist the forces of evil.