The complex of fortified buildings that stood on the hill during the Middle Ages was first identified as a castle in 963 AD, in a document in which Emperor Otto I donated to the Archbishop of Belluno lands near the castle of Polcenigo. Subsequently, the fief and the castle passed to the Lords of Polcenigo, who later became counts, and lived there until the first half of the 19th century.

At the beginning of the 18th century, the castle was in poor condition.

In 1738, the Counts commissioned the Venetian architect Matteo Lucchesi to design a new comfortable building. The austere fortress became an elegant palace in the style of a Venetian villa. Materials from the remains of existing structures and large stones taken from the nearby Sarone quarry were used for the construction. The imposing building resembled the palaces overlooking the Grand Canal in Venice, with interiors embellished with frescoes, stuccoes, paintings, tapestries, and mirrors.

From the main entrance, one could access the hall, used for welcoming guests and hosting parties, from which every area of the building could be reached: the prisons, the staircase leading to the upper floor as well as the inner courtyard, which in turn led to the rear garden. The ballroom was connected to a majestic staircase of 365 steps, presumably more than 10 meters wide, which led directly to the village. The church, dedicated to "San Pietro", was accessible only from the outside.

The villa-castle was inhabited for about a century and then abandoned due to inheritance issues among the counts. During the 20th century, the palace experienced a slow decline; the roof and floors collapsed, marbles and stones were removed or sold to be reused in the construction of other buildings (the stones from the staircase were, for example, used in the construction of the church of Vigonovo).

This is the castle church, erected by the judges in unspecified, yet ancient times, as suggested by the dedication to the first of the apostles.

The first confirmed mention of the building dates back to 1219 (but a recently discovered document would date it to 1200), when a certain Pellegrino di Fanna refused a fief located in the villa and territory of Savorgnano into the hands of Stefano, abbot of Sesto al Reghena. The notarial deed recording the renunciation is drawn up in the castle of Polcenigo, in porticu ecclesiae Sancti Petri (in the portico of the church of San Pietro).

A second attestation dates back to 1295, when the church received an offering of two large coins for the repair of a chalice in the will of lady Hengerada of Porcia, wife of Gerardo of the lords of Polcenigo.

Overall, the historical information is currently quite scarce and fragmentary. The pastoral visits carried out between the second half of the 1500s and the early 1800s by the bishops of Concordia often entirely overlook it, probably because it was a private oratory of the counts, or at most reserve a few monotonous lines, in which the conditions in which the building was kept are generally approved without reservations.

The church certainly had the main altar dedicated to the Prince of the Apostles, already adorned in the 1500s with an altarpiece.

A will of Margherita, widow in 1508 of Count Ettore di Polcenigo, confirms the existence of a second altar, dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary, founded (or endowed?) by Margherita herself and her late husband. This altar was most likely still existing in 1584: in that year, the visitor Monsignor De Nores indeed confirmed two altars, the main one provided with a new altarpiece and the other, whose dedication is not mentioned (certainly that of the Madonna), rather dilapidated and completely neglected, so much so that its demolition was prescribed: an intervention soon carried out, as the altar disappears definitively from subsequent documents.

Equally promptly complied with must have been the other episcopal order to block with a wall the door that allowed direct passage from the church to the nearby house of the count: a very convenient solution for the local judges, but not suitable for the prelate, who also ordered a small opening to be made in comu epistolae to store the furnishings.

Bishop Paolo Vallaresso, who arrived in Polcenigo in 1694, recorded the church as «S. Pietro e S. Paolo» (a subsequent double dedication?), ordering the gilding of the wooden frame of the altarpiece. Even a marriage celebrated in 1721 names the oratory as «S. Pietro e Paolo in castello», while in the following decades the title returns to Pietro alone.

Shortly before the mid-1700s, San Pietro was involved in the extensive restructuring work of the Polcenigo castle, initiated by Counts Ottavio and Minuccio. As stated in a protest by the «popolari» in 1738, shortly after the start of the work, the counts had also demolished the ancient castle church with the adjoining bell tower and begun to erect «one from scratch, with magnificent architecture», better suited to the prestigious palace that was rising in place of the old manor. For the castle project, the name of Matteo Lucchesi, an illustrious designer of the time, has been mentioned. There are currently no documents that assign the new building to the Venetian architect without a shadow of a doubt (among other things, in 1738 Lucchesi would have been just over thirty years old and perhaps too inexperienced for such a complex work). If, however, Lucchesi is attributed the authorship of the castle or at least its completion, we believe that the annexed church of San Pietro should also be assigned to him, within the framework of a unified design of the castle complex.

In 1765, in the small church (already completely rebuilt?), the presence of a single altar with a wooden table is confirmed. From the brief approvals received from the various bishops, the condition of the building seems good by the end of the 1700s and the beginning of the following century; even in 1828, it appeared in good order and with the necessary sacred furnishings to Monsignor Giusto Fontanini during a pastoral visit.

Less than thirty years later, in 1857, Bishop Andrea Casasola found the small church neglected due to a fierce dispute that had meanwhile arisen among the various counts of Polcenigo over inheritance issues, a dispute that also involved the nearby castle and which, with its long aftermath, would lead to the abandonment and neglect of both the manor and the small church, which would soon be deconsecrated and disappear from documentation.

Towards the end of the 1800s, the church and castle changed hands several times, without the various owners (the counts of Polcenigo, then private individuals, then the counts again) being able or willing to attempt to save them. More than one actually used the two buildings as a reservoir of valuable architectural elements to place in private homes or to sell, if not as a simple quarry for construction stones.

From the small church perhaps come, due to the subject, the refined medallion in bas-relief (Madonna among the angels blessing San Pietro), now in the side altar at San Rocco, and the beautiful bronze statuette (from the 17th century?) depicting San Pietro in the chair, currently kept at San Giacomo. The photographic images that from the late 1800s to the post-World War II period portray the castle hill show the agony of the castle structures and the church of San Pietro, with the collapse of the roof and part of the walls due to weather, water infiltration, and earthquakes that hit the area (particularly those of 1936 and 1976).

Excerpt from “Alessandro Fadelli – Le Chiese di Polcenigo”

ARCHITECTURAL DESCRIPTION

The Church of San Pietro, adjacent to the castle, is a large square-plan building that overlooks the entrance courtyard located to the west of the Palazzo.

The structure rises on a high base made up of previous walls and is accessible via a flight of steps that lead to the west door.

The side of the chapel facing south was particularly cared for by Matteo Lucchesi, who embellished it with a marble facade characterized by a system of pairs of tall flat pilasters arranged in pairs, which, above a simple entablature, support other flat pilasters placed below the main cornice.

The profile created by the complex grouping of columns is surprising, as if the architect were trying to simplify the forms as much as possible while maintaining the typically Venetian interest in contrasts between light and shadow on a flat surface.

The style of the chapel changes significantly inside where four tall and sturdy pillars rise at the corners to support the framework of an elaborate ribbed vault.

Together, the Palazzo and the Chapel provide a valuable document for the rediscovery of Lucchesi's style, as they demonstrate a design idea that, while hovering on the threshold of European Neoclassicism, still shows sympathy for the powerful repertoire of late Venetian Baroque architectural motifs.

FEAST OF SAN PIETRO

Every year on June 29, a Mass is celebrated in front of the Church and everyone celebrates together.