SESTO AL REGHENA, ABBEY OF. - S. al R. is a small town (3,500 inhabitants) in the province of Udine, in the diocese of Concordia, from which it is six miles distant, whence the original name of Sextus in silvi.
The Roman origin of the place is attested by various finds, such as mosaic fragments, terracotta elements, coins, inscriptions. The river Réghena flows through it, and on its western bank the brothers Erfo, Anto and Marco, Lombards, sons of Peter, duke of Friuli, and of Piltrude, founded the Benedictine abbey (act of foundation 3 May of the year 762). Traces of the Benedictine labor to transform the marshy land into farmland and to reduce the woods, and to erect new centers of life, are still alive. From the very beginning the abbey was endowed with a rich patrimony and received donations from Charlemagne, from Lothair, Berengar, and from other princes and faithful; it reached its greatest splendor from the 11th to the 14th century, when 50 towns and castles depended on it, scattered throughout Friuli, in the marches of Treviso, Verona, Vicenza, Belluno, Ancona, Trieste and Istria. During the 10th century, together with the bishopric of Concordia, it had passed under the feudal dominion of the patriarch of Aquileia, and like it from the 13th century had a voice in the Parliament of the Patria del Friuli, in the group of prelates, and shared its fortunes. Its life slowly declined, until in 1441 it was given in commendam to Card. Pietro Barbo.
Now of the ancient monastery there remain parts of buildings reworked and adapted as town hall, rectory, nursery school, and a great tower (15th century) at the entrance to the monastic enclosure.
MONUMENTS
Of the Basilica, datable to the second half of the 8th century, various fragments of sculpture survive; the Basilica, after its rebuilding in the 12th-13th centuries, underwent restorations: it is Romanesque in style with emphases characteristic of the architecture of central Italy, and is preceded by a long, well-decorated entrance-ambulatory and by a covered and distinctive atrium-quadriportico, almost a unicum of its kind; it has three naves, with alternating pillars and columns, three apses with external protection, and a restored crypt (1912), which preserves remains of stone seats, decoration, flooring and the so-called sarcophagus with relics of St. Anastasia (7th-8th century); the spacious, square presbytery rises like a tall tower, certainly recalling early medieval construction methods. In front of the Basilica stands the Romanesque bell tower, lacking a spire.
Now, beside the entrance, rooms belonging to the church and the cloister have been restored and are being restored, with frescoes of various periods, including the 10th-12th centuries (scenes of the Crusades). Above the entrance-atrium, a hall houses sculptures and ancient fragments and on its walls has traces of frescoes (13th-14th centuries) that suggest a chapel perhaps dedicated to St. Michael.
The whole Basilica was decorated with frescoes ranging from the 12th to the 14th century. In the central apse, the Coronation of the Virgin, with scenes of the annunciation of the Nativity, of the washing of the Child and, below, in niches and quatrefoils, figures and busts of saints: color, line, chiaroscuro effect and figurations recall Giottesque models with the influence of the Romagnol-Bolognese school (first half of the 14th century). In the tall tower, episodes of the Virgin, of St. Joseph, St. John the Evangelist, St. Benedict and St. Scholastica; on the wall of the right nave, next to the presbytery, scenes of St. Peter and St. Paul and the Tree of the Cross, on whose branches are inserted saints of the Church and of the Benedictine Order: frescoes that reflect the taste and characteristics of the Giottesque school.
On the facade wall of the Basilica, the scene of the Three Living and the Three Dead, which recalls a similar fresco in the Camposanto of Pisa (early 14th century), and Renaissance frescoes (with Ferrarese influences and those of Pellegrino da S. Daniele) with Sts. Peter and Paul and Thomas. On the right wall of the entrance, the Paradise, a grandiose and luminous fresco to be attributed to a narrative artist who is influenced by the Tuscan manners of Benozzo and of Angelico (second half of the 15th century); on the other wall, the Hell, with the drama of the damned in the most varied attitudes and divided into sectors, which recall Dante's hell; on the facing wall, the Archangel Gabriel, who weighs souls with a balance while other angels introduce them into paradise; schemes and scenes that restore the taste and luminosity of the primitive painters. Worthy of mention is the sculpture of the Gothic Annunciation, on a Romanesque-Byzantine scheme (13th century).