Santi Pietro e Paolo ('St. Peter and Paul', ) is a Catholic church in Brebbia in the province of Varese, Italy. The church was built in 1100 and is a national monument. It is considered one of the best preserved Romanesque buildings in the province.

Location The St. Peter and Paul Church is situated in the centre of Brebbia, in the region of Lombardy. The town was the seat of a castle of the Milanese Archbishops in the medieval period.

History The Church of St. Peter and Paul is one of the best preserved churches in Italy. It was built in the 12th century by Julius of Novara, who was allied with the Romanic army. They decided that they wanted to replace an already existing church with a much bigger one on the same location. The St. Peter and St. Paul Church was built under Roman influence and is characterized by a strong Romanesque style. The church features various artworks, including paintings and frescoes dedicated to Queen Mary, St. Peter and St. Paul, the patrons of the town.

St. Paul and Peter Church is associated with the myth of St. Julius, the founder of the church. The myth tells that Julius came with his brother from Greece to evangelize the area close to Orta Lake, and decided to destroy the temple of Minerva and build the Brebbia Church. The church has undergone various renovations, including the change of the central nave in the 17th century, which now includes more complex trusses, and restyling of the artwork.

Origins The church is located on or near the site of an earlier Roman temple dedicated to Minerva, built to celebrate a victory against the Celts, who occupied the cities of Milan and Como.

Following Theodosius I's decision to adopt the Catholic religion, the Romans replaced Minerva's temple with a Christian church. This original church was subsequently replaced with the current church of St. Peter and Paul. The construction of the new Church was due partially to increasing population in the region.

The title of pieve During the 5th century, after several barbaric invasions against the town of Brebbia, the church gained importance and was granted the title of pieve, becoming the centre of the archbishops of Insubria. The church lost the title of in 1567, when it was passed to the city of Milan.

Similarities with regional church architecture The church evinces architectural analogies with other churches of the area. These churches were also built around the 12th century and include ; Church of S. Antonio of San Fedele Intelvi; Church of S. Vittore di Bedero; and . These churches are characterized by a Romanesque architecture and were based on three naves and one apse. The apse are all located at the end of the main nave.

Art critics have advanced the hypothesis that all of these were built under the main guidance of Julius of Novara, due to the similarity in style.

Besozzi family The Church of St Peter and Paul contains several references to the Besozzi family. This family gained power in the 12th century and financed the construction of various churches and monuments, including the Church of St. Peter and Paul in Brebbia. This funding allowed the family to gain power in the area and to obtain favourable treatment in the affairs of the Catholic Church. The family had a coat of arms characterized by a golden flying eagle, which features in the church's fresco of the crucifixion.

Architecture

St. Peter and Paul Church has a typical Romanesque architecture: it is elementary and characterized by three naves and one apse, located at the end of the main nave and orientated to the east. There is a transept that comes out from the secondary naves.

The main nave was originally characterized by a truss, substituted in the 17th century by a vault. This renovation work destabilized the building and because of that it required further structural modifications, which include the addition of tie-rods and metal slabs. These additions still remain visible on the church exterior.

Exterior

The wall of the church is made of great blocks of serizzo, granite and stone from Angera; they are positioned in a linear horizontal order.

The front of the church shows the sloping roofs that come from the elevation of the main nave of 1600. The original structure of the church was made in a hut shape. The elevation of the nave is hidden by the plastering. The front of the church is divided into three parts as it is inside. On the high side of the front is an oculus, located in the middle, and two single-lancet windows in the secondary naves. The architects decided to complete the front with two doors: the main door is located in the centre, and it has a secondary door beside, which is smaller.

On the south side of the building, there is a door in the middle of two single-lancet windows, similar to the ones in the front. The door is particularly decorated and is used as the main entrance of the church.

The transept is opened by two single-lancet windows located in a low level, and an oculus in the middle.

The apse is closed by the transept, and it is divided into three parts by two half pedestals. Each part is defined by a single-lancet splayed window with an arch and solid Angera stones. The single-lancet window of the central part is bigger than the others and more elegant. It is similar to the door on the south side of the building. The north side of the building is plain with no windows.

Interior

The interior has three naves on square pillars. Originally it had a trussed roof on the central nave. The semi-columns that start from the level of the capitals have been used to support the fall of the seventeenth-century vaults. The wide eastern apse has an ogival-shaped basin that still has 15th-century frescoes.

From the inside of the church, the problems related to the restructuring of the church are evident. The naves are characterized by three spans, and the main nave is twice the size of the secondary naves. The pillars of the church are characterized by having different shapes. They bear a wide cross vault, located in the centre of the transept. This area is the only one that was originally covered by the vault, to emphasize the holy part of the church.

Artwork

The apse The frescoes can be found in the apse and in the southern nave of the church. The apse is dominated by a basin, which is the most important feature of the complex as it highlights the altar and catches the eye of the visitors who enter the church. The frescoes have been subject to several changes and were replaced by new frescoes with more modern features. This coverage can be seen by the different thicknesses on the wall. Understanding the original frescoes is difficult because documentation is scarce and most of them date back to the early 15th century.

The pastoral visit in 1569 was led by Leonetto Chiavone. It resulted in a statement saying that the altar was placed under a painted and ornamented vault. In the pastoral visit of 1581, the apse is described as full of frescoes, but with corroded images due to the antiquity. Descriptions of these frescoes are missing and it is impossible to define which of the visible frescoes are original ones. During post-1939 restorations, some antique frescoes were uncovered that were obscured during restoration work in the 16th century.

The only dateable fresco is of the Crucifixion, located at the top right of the central window. The sides of the cross are faded but remain to show the date in Roman numerals. The coat of arms of the Besozzi family is still visible. The work is very simplified due to the characters covering all available places with a clean and dark outline. There are also decorations visible in the ornaments on the vestments and in the rays above the aureole of the angels and saints. Above the arch which introduces the presbytery, the Master of the Fissiraga Tomb has painted an intense Gothic-style Crucifixion. Its dramatic look is contained in the gestures of Mary and John, in the gestures of the angels that gather the Blood of Christ from the chalice, and with the solemnity that contrasts with the desperate flights of their respective Varesini around the cross.

The fresco that is placed on the left side of the central window represents the Madonna Enthroned with the Child and Saint Peter. The throne of the Virgin Mary has Gothic elements, such as turrets and pinnacles, making it look like a sacred edifice. The theme of Virgin Mary as mother is the image of the Church that is usually suggested, but Saint Peter acquires a particular importance in this fresco. The state of conservation of the artwork is precarious due to the disappearance of many graphic details. These were originally described as numerous, but currently only remain in the vestment of the Child and in its borders.

Under the Crucifixion fresco is a fragmented fresco with different stylistic characteristics. The plaster on which the fresco is painted has a lower thickness, showing that the artwork is older. It is estimated to date between the end of the 13th century and the start of the 14th century. The visible part represents figures of saints, of whom on the right is Saint Peter with the keys and the book, and John the Baptist dressed in skins and a symbol of the Angel of God in his hand. The usage of the lines is nearly obsessive: the beards, hair, alignment of the face, margins of the clothes and the aureoles. The veins of the wood of the cross are underlined by dark lines and the artist ornamented the superior border with flowers.

Similar characteristics can be found in a fragment of Ambrose, highlighted under two saints from 1400 in the lower band of the left arch. Part of the face, the aureole and the three scourges are visible. Around the figure there is a partially conserved frame similar to the Crucifixion.

A group of figures of saints was found in the southern nave during the restorations in 1963–1964. The altar of Saint Stephen should have been situated here, numerous times named in the pastoral visits in the end of 1500. When in 1716 the current altar of the Immaculate Conception was erected, these frescoes were partially destroyed and hidden behind a wall of bricks. It is possible to distinguish the central part of a figure wearing a dalmatic, an attribute of Saint Stephen. A nearly complete figure exists to the left of the altar. This saint, maybe Paul, has the same frontal presentation of Ambrose, the same design in hair and vestments, and the same design in the aureole.

The apsidal basin This part of the basin is very damaged. The whole inferior zone is crossed by a large fracture and few traces of colour appear. The visible figures are ruined in several places, and the decorative borders appear to be reworked.