Best known as the place that houses the house-museum of Giovanni Pascoli, Barga and its Collegiate Church of San Cristoforo are actually custodians of a mystery.
Built in Romanesque style in the 9th century, the Church houses many works of art including a precious school Bigarelli Ambon, but what always aroused more interest is the mysterious engraving located on the right side of the current door input.
The inscription seems to be composed of Latin letters, Greek and some symbols that recur, an inscription that for centuries has aroused the curiosity of famous people like Emperor Charles V and Pope Paul III.
Still unknown the meaning, the other mystery that characterizes the epigraph is its spread, there are actually six identical copies in the area that encompasses the towns of Pisa, Pistoia and Barga, province of Lucca.
Different interpretations are divided between those who see the inscriptions as purely symbolic and those rather than reading a message in the text. According to some scholars, the Cathedral was once a bastion of the Knights Templar.
The archeologist and epigraphist Guarducci points out that since the early centuries of the Christian era the remembrance of God was considered an excellent defense against evil and as confirmation of what were often found some inscriptions with the name of the Trinity affixed on the facades of houses and churches to prevent evil to enter it. Therefore, the placement of the epigraph talking would confirm the apotropaic and magical character.
Whatever the meaning of our advice is to take a trip to discover the country of Barga included among the "Borghi più belli d'Italia" by Touring Club and its collegiate church, whose original construction dates back to the year 1000 and the bells in the Tower inspired the famous poem of pastures, L'ora di Barga.
Photo Credits [wikimedia.org]
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