The town of Avenza, a hamlet of the municipality of Carrara two kilometers from the beach, has a modern appearance today but hides an ancient history dating back to at least 1180, the year of the foundation of the “burgus novus de Aventia.” A few years later (1187) there is already news of a parish church dedicated to St. Peter, the remains of which emerge from the present building, of 17th-century construction: the façade, on the pedestrian Finelli Square, is very simple, and does not hint at the richness of the historical and artistic heritage preserved inside.
Before entering, note, beside the entrance, the coat of arms with the crescent moon of the bishops of Luni and, near the bell tower, a 15th-century bas-relief lunette with a risen Christ among adoring angels, not quite finished.
Access to the church is through the right side doorway; on the left one immediately encounters an imposing column (found in 1977) dating from the first construction, whose floor level was evidently lower than today.
Continuing along the nave we encounter, on the right wall, a 14th-century aedicule with a Madonna and Child, enclosed by an elegant flamboyant spire in Nordic taste, while on the concluding altar stands a precious Madonna and Child on panel attributed to the so-called Maestro di Barga (first half of the 15th century). A probable fragment of a larger work, this precious image is embellished, on the gold background and on the robes, with elaborate punching and carvings; the child holds a goldfinch with his right hand, while his left hand seems to be playing with his mother’s veil, in an intimate and familiar gesture.
Thepillars of the nave are enlivened by a series of 16th-century sculptures within niches: flanking the high altar areSt. Peter (left) and St. Paul (right), while a Madonna and Child is seen in the left pillar . This first group of figures, of fine workmanship, has been variously traced to the workshop of the Lombard sculptor Pietro Aprile (1477-1558ca.) or that of the Neapolitan Gerolamo Santacroce (1502-1537), both of whom were active in Carrara in the first decades of the 16th century. The works must have belonged to a more complex composition, from which the St. Anthony Abbot on the right-hand pillar, considered by some to be a later, midcentury work , perhaps also derives . Closing the series are the two beautiful niches, with shell valves and mutilated entablature, inserted in the counterfacade: inside are a modern St. Anthony of Padua and a 16th-century female figure of uncertain interpretation, perhaps an allegory ofFaith.
The 18th-century pulpit and high altar are richly ornamented and inlaid with polychrome marble.
At the beginning of the left aisle, at the pillar supporting the orchestra, are the remains of the portal of the medieval church, whose orientation was at right angles to the present one. On the first altar is a 13th-century woodencrucifix, which a popular tradition has it that it was transported here from a church in ancient Luni.
It isfollowed by the so-called Ringli Triptych (1438) that has come to the headlines for its (happy ending) rocamboleque affair: the panel painting, depicting Saint Peter Enthroned with Saints Anthony Abbot and Mary Magdalene, was commissioned by the mercenary captain Peter von Johanns Ringli, lieutenant of Francesco Sforza’s troops and commander of the fortress of Avenza between 1437 and 1441. The triptych remained very little in the church of San Pietro and soon took its way to Genoa, under circumstances that are not entirely clear. Having entered the collections of the Banca Popolare and Cassa di Risparmio di Genova, it was dismembered in 1895, when its panels were auctioned off. The panels then came into the possession of a German collector who, fortunately, purchased the three elements en bloc, preventing their dispersal. After a series of other vicissitudes, the Ringli Triptych finally returned to Italy, in 2018, thanks to the purchase made in London, at a well-known auction house, by a Milanese gallery owner. The parish priest of St. Peter’s, who took an interest in the work, then succeeded in the incredible feat of raising the sum needed to purchase the work, with the help of the townspeople, a number of local businesses and the gallery owner himself, who was willing to accept a favorable price in order to see a work of this level return home after five centuries.
Equipped with an appropriate security system, the triptych then made its triumphant return to the church in Avenza, where it has again been kept since the end of 2019. Studied by some of Italy’s leading art historians, the work is attributed to the Maestro di Sant’Ivo, a Florentine painter active in the first quarter of the 15th century. If the presence of St. Peter is easily linked to the dedication of the Aventine church, the presence of St. Anthony Abbot could refer to the ancient and contiguous hospital dedicated to the saint, recalling how the place constituted an important stop on the Via Francigena route.