Description

The cathedral of Barga, dedicated to San Cristoforo, is located in the upper part of the town, on the embankment once defended by battlemented walls. The original building of the church dates back to the year one thousand and the works of enlargement and remodeling undertaken between the eleventh and sixteenth centuries are evident. The facade of the cathedral, in fact, corresponds to the ancient side of the primitive church, characterized by blocks of alberese stone from the quarries of Barga, dazzling on sunny days. The portal in the middle is surmounted by an arch carved with acanthus leaves and an architrave in bas-relief with rural scenes, while at the sides there are two columns on which two lions rest. The main work of the cathedral, structured on three naves, is the beautiful marble pulpit, the work of the Comacini masters. Supported by four columns, the front ones rest on two lions, while the back ones rest on the floor and on the back of an old curved man.nThe primitive church preserves XII century stoups and part of a fresco on the first column on the right. At the end of the nave stands the medieval wooden statue of St. Christopher. In the chapel on the right, dedicated to the Blessed Sacrament, there is a sixteenth-century terracotta altarpiece in the style of Robbia, depicting the Virgin and San Rocco and the Ciborio degli Olii Santi, glazed earthenware. In the chapel on the left, dedicated to the Madonna del Molino, we admire a fourteenth-century table of the Madonna inserted in a sixteenth-century painting.