Built in the 1850s, the church of San Barnaba delimits the North-West side of the main square of the hamlet of Spindoli with its main South-East facade: reinterpreted by the last restoration in 2005according to the stylistic features of the Tuscan Renaissance rural churches as, in turn, renovated according to the taste of the 19th century – the best known example is perhaps the chapel of the Madonna di Vitaleta in San Quirico d’Orcia – a humble hut-like surface has been built here with mainly irregular stone blocks left exposed. The only exception to this design choice, which concerned the entire building, was made for the body behind the apse, in which the sacristy is located.
The few ornaments of the main facade are a beautiful portal raised on two steps, highlighted by a stone frame with an imposing entablature supported by volute shelves; an oculus placed on the middle axis, as in the above example, also framed in stone; a multi-level brick frame that follows the slope of the roof crowning the elevation, the latter a total reinvention of the last restoration: the archive images of the pre-intervention state show a rough plaster elevation whose roof is devoid of any frame.
INTERIOR
The rectangular hall and the presbytery raised by a step, with twelve coffered ceilings made of plaster and camorcanna, are naturally illuminated only by the oculus on the facade and by two lunettes placed on the side elevations, aligned with the two arches that frame two openings blinds that house as many statues.
The apse, on the other hand, highlighted by a lowered triumphal arch supported by pilasters, which corresponds on the roof to a semi-ellipsoidal basin in blue painted camorcanna in the center of which the IHS monogram and a cartouche with golden letters stand out, betrays a geometric non-correspondence, both in plan and in elevation, with the external hemi cyclical envelope: this is due to the desire to obtain in the area of the grounds of the entire apse, in addition to the restricted internal apse, a sort of service ambulatory preceding the sacristy compartment and capable of allowing access to a further service compartment above the apsidal basin, inscribed in the upper portion of the external hemicycle and illuminated by a rectangular opening placed in the center of the external apsidal curve.
The liturgical furnishings respect the prescriptions of the Second Vatican Council: the stone altar is placed in the center between the tabernacle and the ambo; behind the altar stands a monolithic dossal of contemporary manufacture in which an open space has been obtained, like a stone throne, suitable for housing the statue of San Barnaba.
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