The overall project for the restoration of the House for the Blind at Civate, which includes the church o S, Calocero with frescoes and structures of the 12th century onwards, the cloister and the structures of the ex-monastery. also involved an excavation. This was undertaken in the ex-prison which linked the church and monastery that were originally detached from each other. Both the passageway and the sacristy are additional elements created during the transformation of the structure in the 19th century when, having been deconsecrated, it was used for storage. It was here that the excavation took place.
Below the present floor level was a layer of levelling rubble, the removal of which revealed the remains of a path providing access to the altar zone. This was constituted by a by a thin layer of lime mortar laid over mixed rubble (stones, blocks of mortar and brick fragments).
This rested on the remains of another pavement make up in a weak lime mortar which in turn covered a tract of apse wall from an earlier building phase, cut by the crypt wall and the monastery’s perimeter wall.
The removal of the rubble revealed the wall standing to a height of 60cm and built in local squared stone blocks bonded with lime mortar. Below this were the remains of a dry-stone circular structure placed directly on the bed-rock. In recent times architectural fragments and early medieval tombstones had been inserted into the sacristy walls that are comparable to others recovered from the stratigraphic excavation, thus it is possible to suggest a date of the 7th century A.D. for the apsidal remains. This provides a terminus ante quem for the earlier structure. as no finds came to light which provide more precise dating. (Paolo Corti)