The Lombards were a Germanic people of Scandinavian origin settled on Christian and land; after their conversion to Christianity, they absorbed material and cultural values inherited from the Romans. They also came in contact with Byzantine, Hellenic and Middle-eastern culture and stand as a unique phenomenon for its monumental, aesthetic and, more generally, cultural features. The remains of Lombard power in Italy are the echo and the symbol of that people, a precious memento of one of the most important roots of medieval Europe and western Christian civilisation.
[expand title=”An extraordinary display of integration and cultural hybridisation”]
When in 568 the Lombards invaded the Italian peninsula led by King Alboin, what they found were the material (architecture) and immaterial (institutional traditions and cultural heritage) remains of the fallen Roman civilisation. There they found a land rich in positive characteristics, from a climate and physical standpoint and also as the crossroads between the East and the West. This land, then, was rich of benefits that the Lombards made the most of from the north to the south, leaving remarkable traces in the form of styles and monuments and a fundamental contribution in the High Middle Ages. The integration process in the area and with the local populations, as well as the establishment of some new elements of Germanic origin, were the glue that ensured along history a continuity between Ancient history and the Middle Ages: a sort of network whereby a new culture rose, one that with modern terms could be defined as “creole”: a mix stemmed from two branches, Antiquity and Rome and the Germanic world, the mix of the remains of the former with the new vigour of the latter. One of the practical manifestations of the integration and synthesis was the use Lombards made of the remains, the re-use of the old stonework and architecture found in necropolis or abandoned buildings, mostly of Roman age. Wherever they settled, Lombards found plenty of resources of this kind and immediately saw to their reuse, at times, such as in the case of the castrum at Castelseprio, in a conservative way vis-à-vis its function, thus reusing the stronghold structure for the same purpose, some others in an innovative way, as in the way old marble slabs from Tempietto in Cividale del Friuli, used as the pavement for the chancel. Art production – Lombard architecture and decorative art – respected and imitated the preceding culture as a symbol of continuity and harmony between the past and the present.[/expand]
[expand title=”Original traits that enriched Italian culture from north to south”]
Lombard decoration has particular aesthetic relevance and, much like the reuse of material from previous ages, was marked at the same time by continuity and innovation: continuity for the way it resorted to models and craftsmanship of Roman Byzantine tradition, and innovation because the decorative elements of Lombard culture were the product of a now combination between those techniques and models. The decoration in the San Salvatore – Santa Giulia complex, Brescia, is truly remarkable for this very reason; it is among the best preserved in Europe together with those of Tempietto di Cividale del Friuli, and the stuccoes and frescoes covering the structures eclectically combine several different traditions in a unique taste: Roman, Byzantine, Hellenic and Germanic traditions become one. In the centre-south, too, in that part of Lombard territory called Langobardia Minor, there is a significant example: the Church of Santa Sofia in Benevento displays a truly original pictorial set, whose expressive power and natural vivacity testify to the skills of Lombard art production.[/expand]
[expand title=”Lombard architecture: diverse and symbolic”]
The Italian territory appeared to the Lombards as impoverished by the wars and divided from an institutional and political standpoint due to the lack of a central authority. As concerns architectural work, Lombard history left an indelible mark by spreading across the peninsula a strong and renewed spirit of synthesis between the Roman world and early Middle Ages. From this standpoint, too, the reuse of remains from Roman buildings was very important, especially with regard to ideology. The Lombards were a people lacking any architectural tradition or culture and were not familiar with stone construction techniques and materials; consequently, when they settled in Italy they preferred to reside in the country in sheds built from perishable material. Their architectural work, of which only the places of worship now listed as World Heritage Sites remain, were of varied type and function, though they all had in common a uniformity of vision, a vision that was once again focused on integrating with the inherited classical culture, first by imitation and later by hybridisation; thus the Lombards created a style of their own and laid the groundwork for a new European culture.[/expand]