An archaeological investigation was undertaken as part of the project for the restoration of the Church of the SS. Trinità at Esine (Bs).
Mentioned it seems for the first time in 771 (but the document is lost), the church in its actual form dates to between the 12th and 13th centuries. It has a single nave with four cross-vaulted bays. A sacristy/crypt of Romanesque plan, the exterior of which was later altered, is entered from the fourth span via a 17th century door. This structure is abutted by the present presbytery/apse structure (end of the 15th-16th century), a square construction identified as an ossuary and a stairway leading to the choir and Chapel of San Rocco (end of the 15th century).
Trench 1 confirmed that to the north of the church there was a cemetery. Trench 2, dug in the cement floor of the Chapel of San Rocco, revealed how this structure rests on a make up of local stone placed sideways up. Trench 3, dug around the northern impost of the arch dividing the first and second spans, revealed an earlier pavement of local stone slabs. All the structures below the late medieval pavement were covered by what is probably a beaten earth layer relating to the building works themselves or a layer of levelling. Trench 4, dug to the west of the southern impost of the arch dividing the first and second bays, confirmed the presence of a floor level of local stone slabs bonded with very strong mortar relating to the nave. Trench 5, dug outside the nave identified the first foundation levels of the walls. The absence of buttresses, typical of Romanesque building, may confirm the hypothesis that the church is built directly on bedrock. (Fabio Malaspina)