Le santelle dell’Alta Valtellina
Una geografia quotidiana del sacro

Tesi di laurea di D. Tam, Relatore G. P. Piretto, Università degli studi di Milano – Facoltà di Lettere e Filosofia, Corso di Laurea in Teoria e metodi per la comunicazione, a.a. 2011–2012.

INDICE

    Introduzione

1. Capitolo I
   Immagini del sacro nel mondo popolare
1. La realtà della cultura, della religiosità e dell’arte popolare
2. Vedere per credere: il culto delle sacre immagini
3. Le immagini nelle Riforme evangeliche e le risposte tridentine
2. Capitolo II
   Il territorio e le comunità dell’Alta Valtellina: sviluppi storici e note sulla mentalità religiosa
1. Studi, ricerche e documenti sulla cultura popolare locale
2. Vicende politiche e religiose dell’Alta Valtellina dal XVI al XX secolo
3. Principi morali e principi religiosi nella legislazione locale
4. Pratiche religiose private e comunitarie: ieri ed oggi
3. Capitolo III
   Le santelle dell’Alta Valtellina
1. La santella: un termine in via di definizione
2. Le santelle nella toponomastica popolare
3. Tipologie architettoniche e modalità decorative
4. La committenza e le sue ragioni
5. I luoghi della memoria
6. La manodopera nelle santelle: muratori, artigiani ed artisti
7. Cronologia delle opere rilevate
8. Iscrizioni ed apparati decorativi nelle santelle delle alte valli dell’Adda
9. Ricorrenze iconografiche
4. Capitolo IV
   Credenze, leggende ed avvenimenti prodigiosi
1. Voci ed ombre dal passato
2. Presenze demoniache all’agguato: streghe, stregoni e spiritelli malefici
3. Santi e Madonne nella lotta contro il nemico infernale
4. La leggenda della Santéla da la ràna a Madonna dei Monti
5. Credici che il Ciel ti aiuta: un’immagine parlante a S. Nicolò
6. Avvenimenti prodigiosi alla Santéla del muràc(h)’
7. Un tesoro nascosto alla santelìna viʃgìn a l’Ada
8. Azioni sacrileghe e punizioni divine
9. Il ricordo di un povero cristiano: una poesia per non dimenticare
5. Capitolo V
   Le santelle e le loro funzioni nella pratica religiosa
1. La sacralità delle santelle
2. Un «misfatto sacrilego» alla Madonnina di Oga
3. Le santelle: luoghi di culto privati e comunitari
4. Lungo le vie di un’antica fede: le Rogazioni
5. La solennità del Santissimo Corpo e Sangue di Cristo
6. La recita del rosario nel mese di maggio
7. Le santelle al centro di altri momenti festivi
6. Capitolo VI
   Elenco delle opere rilevate
1. Una geografia quotidiana del sacro
2. Le santelle a protezione del territorio e degli abitanti di Sondalo
3. Le santelle della Valdisotto
4. Le santelle bormine
5. Le santelle della Valfurva
6. Le santelle della Valdidentro
7. Le santelle di Livigno

    Conclusioni

    Bibliografia

    Sitografia

    Fonti orali

Summary of the graduate thesis entitled
"Santelle in Alta Valtellina. A daily geography of the sacred"

This thesis paper is focused on so–called santelle– i.e. those small religious architectures adorned with holy images which, in our national panorama, are better known by the name of little shrines or votive aedicules.
An essential stimulus to delve into the local developments of this complex artistic and devotional phenomenon came from the lack of an exhaustive census or in–depth and targeted study of santelle in Alta Valtellina, which is made even worse by the fact that quite a few structures of the area that was considered are unfortunately neglected and deteriorated. As a matter of fact, santelle – these particular caskets of the sacred having different names, with which the whole Italian territory, as well as many other international areas, have been dotted for centuries – are invaluable sources for learning about the history and evolution of popular sacred art and also discovering original aspects of collective culture, religiosity, mentality and imagination; among other things, they make it possible to give a key to the reading of both the past and present of the communities within which these modest architectural structures originated. Taking a careful and unprejudiced look at these works dedicated to the glory of the Lord and made by often anonymous artists actually means entering into the history of the societies which built, embellished and looked after them, in order to unveil their environmental and cultural situations, customs and traditions, legends and superstitions, so as to provide an unexpected range of information.

The main purpose and aim of this paper, which does not purport to be exhaustive, is therefore to try and rediscover, understand and possibly help preserve and valorise the santelle of the six municipalities comprising the Comunità Montana Alta Valtellina – a rich heritage of expression which has long been undeservedly ignored and pushed into the background by official and academic culture.
Since this is a first systematic analysis, which started from poor and limited documentation – that, on the other hand, was not easy to find – the first thing I did was to search for all the ancient or recent santelle in the area, also paying attention to those which had been torn down or erased by the inexorable passage of time. The on–site search for artefacts was supplemented by a difficult survey of archives and documents, and followed by an inquiry phase aimed at tracing all significant oral accounts to clarify the above phenomenon, as well as interesting contextual aspects. In fact, santelle are on the borderline among ethno–anthropological, sociological, devotional and historical–artistic interest, and therefore it would be misleading not to consider the aesthetic value of these works in the light of the deep–seated spiritual and cultural motives that originated them, as well as the usages and functions which have changed their original appearance over time. For this reason, when setting up this study, I tried to highlight and clarify all those aspects which can make it easier to read the analysed works, so that the scholars who want to approach this phenomenon may take advantage of this first deep dive into the subject.
Although the research into the santelle in Alta Valtellina cannot certainly be considered to have been completed – both because of the expanse of the analysed topic and area, and because of the difficulty in tracing reliable documents on the subject – the results achieved so far make it possible to at least attest that this phenomenon was very widespread throughout the territory that was considered. As a matter of fact, several santelle were and still are scattered along the roads and paths of the upper Adda valleys, creating a sort of distributed devotional route, a widespread protection network, an actual daily geography of the sacred, which is properly illustrated in the mapping of the traced works. Besides the distribution of santelle in space, the survey also proved that this phenomenon still persists, or better, has lasted for a long time: as a matter of fact, many santelle have been rebuilt in the last decades in memory of the more ancient ones which disappeared for various reasons, and many have been built anew in recent years. Last, but not least, one of the results of this study is the attempt to trace the different elements of continuity or, on the contrary, of transformation characterising the old tradition of building santelle, these particular places of living memory – no matter whether individual or collective – which increasingly seem to also turn into places of consciously cultivated memory, i.e. places of cultural memory. In any case, these places are still somehow important and therefore still are key cultural vehicles.

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