8/22/2019 Caputei - Tyrolean Shrines
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I CaputeiThe ShrinesThere are many art treasures scattered
around the Tyrol. They can be found in churches, castles and the
frescoedpalaces in its cities. They were commissioned by the
institutional church, by prince bishops , and by wealthypatrons.
But throughout the entire Tyrol, there is another form of art
neither inspired nor sponsored by the Churchor the powerful. This
is the devotional art form of the Capitelli, I Caputei in dialect,
wayside shrines that can befound at the outskirts and the
crossroads of towns and villages and on the foot hills of the
mountains. They are theproducts of the local popular piety of the
paesants, the contadini, built with humble means by people of
yethumbler means. A capitello or a caputel is a mini-chapel,
usually sitting on a square foundation with acharacteristic mini
roof. They are also found in a similar form but imbedded in walls
in the villages. Under thecover of this mini roof, there is a niche
where there is situated a statue, a cross, a painting, a fresco
reflecting localpiety or devotions. The images might include a
crucifix, the Virgin Mary, St Joseph, a variety of saints. St
Antony,the Abbot, is often found since he was the patron of
animals, a precious commodity for the contadini, the
farmers.Flowers and votive candles are often found in front of the
images. In the absence of street or road signs, they had apractical
purpose and were markers for travelers. They were found along the
ancient roads of the countryside, inplaces most exposed to dangers
like bridges, gorges, mountain slopes, where one felt yet a greater
need for divineprotectionthey are there to attest to the precarious
state of the farmers existence and the need to dialogue with
the sacred.
While spontaneouly built by the local people over the years,
they have a specific andhistoric origin and precedent that reflects
on the history of the Tyrol. The Tyrol was anarea populated by
peoples and tribes that practiced their own religious expressions
orwhat could be called pagan. For a while, Rome had conquered the
Tyrol, conferredRoman citizenship on the peoples and left behind
its own brand of pantheisticpractices. Romes believed in many
deities and these deities abided everywhereincluding the woods and
their fieldsand even their homes. They had shrines to thesedeities
in their homes, at the crossroads of their roads and in their
fields. They weremeans to derive blessings and presence in their
homes, environments and fields. Theywere called compitelumwhere the
name and form of the capitelli derive. They were littletemples
where one`s devotion to the dieties could be expressed.
To understand this history, Christianity first came to theTyrol
in the person of St Virgilius, IV Century, who
began the process of transitioning the peoples to this new
faith. Thisprocess continued slowly for several centuries so that
pagan practices alsobecame converted and transformed into Christian
expressions. Hence,the Roman shrines became the capitelli.
The story of the capitelli is a humble story which evokes the
past and
popular piety, the world of the contadino and his daily work in
thefields in synch with the cycles of the seasons, a natural
religiosityof these mountain people that included simple gestures
and aspontaneious piety. It evokes images of morningprocessions at
springtime, of people kneeling to invokeprotections for their
harvests or relief in the momentsof calamityof wayfarers with their
hat in hand to restafter walking a great distance, of elders bent
overstopping to say a prayer, of women gathered to recitethe
rosary. Severino Riccadonna: Capitelli. Gianna and Lou
Roman capitellum
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