Description
The Church of San Silvestro, today the Basilica of Christ the Saviour, is the oldest surviving religious building in Trieste after the early Christian basilica. It stands on Via del Collegio, at the foot of the San Giusto hill: a plain Romanesque church with almost a thousand years of history.
The building dates from the 11th century, although some parts may be older. Outside, the Romanesque façade with its arcades stands out and, on the left side, the porch beneath the bell tower, perhaps a medieval tower from the hill's fortifications.
Inside there are three aisles without apses, under a trussed roof. Fragments of early 14th-century frescoes remain, showing Emperor Constantine and the Annunciation, and on a column the sinopia, the preparatory drawing, of a medieval fresco has come back to light.
In the presbytery, three steps higher, there is a marble panel of the Last Supper, together with an 18th-century wrought-iron crucifix. On the floor in front of the altar you can still read a tombstone from 1585 with a coat of arms.
Its story takes a curious turn. In 1784 Emperor Joseph II closed it to Catholic worship, along with twelve other churches in Trieste, and put it up for auction for 1,500 florins. It was bought by the Helvetic Evangelical community, founded a few years earlier thanks to the same emperor's patents of toleration.
The congregation were mostly Swiss immigrants from the Grisons, and in 1786 they dedicated the church to Christ the Saviour. From 1927 to 2020 they shared it with the Waldensians: for more than two centuries it has been a Protestant church.
A late medieval legend holds that this was the site of the house of Euphemia and Thecla, two Triestine martyrs of 256. In fact the cult of the two saints came from Grado, and Trieste adopted them as its own only in the Middle Ages.
In the 17th century the Jesuits had dressed it in Baroque forms. In 1927, after earthquake damage, the architect Ferdinando Forlati removed the Baroque ornaments from the exterior and gave it back its Romanesque look. The following year the church was declared a national monument.
The building dates from the 11th century, although some parts may be older. Outside, the Romanesque façade with its arcades stands out and, on the left side, the porch beneath the bell tower, perhaps a medieval tower from the hill's fortifications.
Inside there are three aisles without apses, under a trussed roof. Fragments of early 14th-century frescoes remain, showing Emperor Constantine and the Annunciation, and on a column the sinopia, the preparatory drawing, of a medieval fresco has come back to light.
In the presbytery, three steps higher, there is a marble panel of the Last Supper, together with an 18th-century wrought-iron crucifix. On the floor in front of the altar you can still read a tombstone from 1585 with a coat of arms.
Its story takes a curious turn. In 1784 Emperor Joseph II closed it to Catholic worship, along with twelve other churches in Trieste, and put it up for auction for 1,500 florins. It was bought by the Helvetic Evangelical community, founded a few years earlier thanks to the same emperor's patents of toleration.
The congregation were mostly Swiss immigrants from the Grisons, and in 1786 they dedicated the church to Christ the Saviour. From 1927 to 2020 they shared it with the Waldensians: for more than two centuries it has been a Protestant church.
A late medieval legend holds that this was the site of the house of Euphemia and Thecla, two Triestine martyrs of 256. In fact the cult of the two saints came from Grado, and Trieste adopted them as its own only in the Middle Ages.
In the 17th century the Jesuits had dressed it in Baroque forms. In 1927, after earthquake damage, the architect Ferdinando Forlati removed the Baroque ornaments from the exterior and gave it back its Romanesque look. The following year the church was declared a national monument.