Description

Probably the original church of Tovena is as old as the village, which is mentioned for the first time in the 962 degree with which the Emperor Ottone I gave the feudal rights on curtis Tovena the bishop of Ceneda Sicario.

The first evidence dates from 1243, when it was mentioned in a document: actum in Cortina Tovene apud ecclesiam. Until 1693, when July 1 was promoted to the parish, the Church of Tovena was then a subsidiary of one of Cison di Valmarino. Nevertheless, in 1423, she was granted the right to erect its own use the baptistery, (a sign that the Community had certainly reached a fair number of inhabitants).

The current religious building was probably built in the eighteenth century and later underwent several renovations and expansions, the most important of which dates back to 1853, when it joined the two aisles, separated from the central by elegant columns.

The documentation concerning the first pastoral visit made in 1740 by Bishop Lorenzo Da Ponte, tells us a lot of information related to the bustling life of the parish and valuable furnishings of the church, which was equipped with seven altars. The charm described in those documents can be seen even today visiting this magnificent church, believed, rightly, one of the most beautiful of the diocese.

The ceiling of the choir is decorated with a painting of Egidio Dall'Oglio, depicting the Almighty that appears in the clouds with the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove, surrounded by cherubim and an angel; clear, according to the art historian G. Mies, the recall with those Cison Archipriest. The vault of the nave is divided into six panels depicting Charity, Hope, Faith, Saints Simon and Jude, the Assumption and the Trinity, frescoes attributed to the painter always painter Cison or son Bartolomeo.

The altar is decorated with a large triptych, whose sumptuous wooden frame carved and covered with gold leaf is the work of the engraver Sante Moretti (1699). At the center is the altarpiece depicting the Madonna and Child on the clouds, among the holy Apostles Simon and Jude, patron of the country (sec. XIX). The two smaller paintings, but instead constitute Valentine martyr and St. Anthony of Padua, and are the result of the work of the Austrian artist Mattia Grempsel, called to the court of accounts Brandolini, and author of several works on the territory, including the shovel Zuel . Probably always Grempsel is the unfinished painting, depicting the Baptism of Jesus, which came to light in the central canvas, following the restoration of the altarpiece of 1990.

Down the aisle, the wooden altar of Our Lady of the Rosary in the central niche hosts the Virgin and Child regent, left the wooden statue of St. Dominic and St. Catherine of Siena right. The wooden altarpiece of the eighteenth century with the Blessed Virgin, St. Urban, San Floriano and San Vigilio comes from the church of San Vigilio, which is located on the left side of the Channel of San Boldo, just above the village of Tovena.
Even protectors against plague, St. Roch and St. Sebastian, is an altar dedicated to presenting the pediment divided into three finely carved and decorated with three angels. The blade center depicts the Madonna seated on the clouds with the Child, San Rocco, St. James, St. Sebastian and St. Anthony Abbot.

In the right aisle the wooden altar is decorated with an eighteenth-century altarpiece by Mattia Grempsel (The Invention of the Holy Cross) and a wooden group (The Deposition of Christ) in the lower part.

Among the valuable furniture available to the church is certainly remembered the organ to a keyboard, characterized by a clear timbre and harmonic hitting pleasantly anyone lucky enough to hear it. It was probably built by Gaetano Callido and it is a typical specimen of the eighteenth century Venetian style.

Also missed the baptistery with monolithic cup dating back to medieval times, covered by a wooden octagonal spire.

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