Page 19 - SAINT HADRIAN’S CHURCH

La Chiesa di Sant’Adriano

Do not miss some decorative
oddities, collected in a
corner under the left arch,
which once embellished the
main portal demolished in
1856, as one can see on the
bas-relieve: a double ring chain held by a hand coming out
from the mouth of a long neck animal without ears. A
reference to prophet Jonha in the belly of the whale?

Quite mysterious is also the head
of another monstrous figure (a
fish?), carved on a floor tile to the
right side of the entrance, under
the wide step as one enters the
church.

Worthy of interest are, moreover, the mysterious vegetable
and zoomorphic decorations placed at the northern
entrance, called the "the monks’ door", which was once
used by the friars to enter the church. This door has the
jambs consisting of two marble
decorated pieces. Pretty curious
are the ornaments of the right
jamb: two stone masks, one
depicts a mustached human
face from whose mouth a
foliage comes out, the other mask shows a lion monster
from whose mouth grows a crop foliage gathered up on its
head.

19