About
A tiny Italian village hides five painted skeletons behind a church.
Averara is a tiny village along the Via Mercatorum, a medieval route linking Bergamo to the rest of Europe. Being on this route meant influencing and being influenced by the cultural trends of the time. A confraternity of penitents called disciplinati (or disciplini) became particularly influential between the 13th and 15th centuries. They were usually looked with suspicion because of their emphasis on the mortification of the flesh, but theologian and preacher Venturino de Apibus popularised this extreme religious practice in the valleys surrounding Bergamo. Around this time, and in line with the disciplinati’s motto, “memento mori” (remember that you must die), portraits of skeletons started appearing in, on, and around churches.
