Page 15 - SAINT HADRIAN’S CHURCH
P. 15
La Chiesa di Sant’Adriano
significance which, along with other decorative elements,
enhance the charm of mystery and ambiguity that still
surround the ancient sacred temple and light up the
visitor’s imagination with evocative and fascinating
hypothesis.
The first mosaic, in front of the entrance, shows a lion and
a snake fighting for an unrecognizable prey because at that
point the mosaic is destroyed.
The lion, in the Judeo-Christian tradition, is metaphorically
associated to Christ, as his symbol. The feline has always
held the meaning of king, authority and strength, and in the
late Middles Age also that of the evil, of Satan, as it appears
in several capitals of cathedrals and Romanesque churches.
In St. Hadrian’s church the
fight between the lion and the
snake can have a double
interpretation. The first
would like it to be the
struggle between good and
evil, and its location in front
of the wall, where the main
entrance once stood, would
have the purpose of warning
the faithful, who entered the sacred building, that he/she,
outside the church, was prey to the demons.
The second interpretation could mean the clash between
two demonic powers to seize man, here symbolically
represented by a prey, unfortunately no longer identifiable.
15
