Santi Vito e Modesto in Sofignano
Santi Vito e Modesto is a church in the Italian village of Sofignano, a frazione of Vaiano, in the region of Tuscany, Italy
History
The parish church is documented since 1024. Originally the church had a very simple structure: a single nave in court, trussed roof and façade. The sizes was very small, as suggested in the top portion of the facade. The shape of the church should not be very different from the Romanesque-style churches of San Pietro a Filgine, Saints Ippolito and Cassiano Vernio and Santa Maria Assunta in Filettole.
Current status
The complex consists of three different rooms (see restoration and modifications), in the center, the church nave, and further rooms to left and right of the sacristy, all three rooms are connected by a porch outside.
The central structure of the present church has remained substantially the same as the original, is still easily recognizable from the outside shape of the original church (see front).
The facade is dominated from the large porch at 5 arches, reminiscent of the ancient basilica churches, the porch is the focal point of the whole structure, is the connecting element of the strange combination of premises adjacent to the church, a wise result to hide the irregularities of the church. Although externally it has a feeling of unity and correspondence between the arches of the porch and the inner aisles of the church (as did the ancient basilicas), internally there is no correspondence to the porch. Although there is no correspondence between the church porch and created a visual filter that fitting the porch with the five-aisled nave of the church is the central sector deliberately emphasized with the sharp two-tone white and green. This connecting element is compatible with the outer porch and with the internal space of the church, since it repeats the structure; it creates a continuity illusory between interior and exterior, and thus to avoid the feeling of narrowness that would feel great going into a space less than what was expected: the outside perceive a very large, we see entering the church does not have the breadth that we had perceived from the outside without that element of connection, once inside the church we perceived a narrow volume. In architecture, many elements are based on emotional perceptions of those who live the architectural volumes, and sometimes just a different color may be enough to make a space seem bigger.
As anticipated, the homogeneity of the facade hides behind if three different rooms: the company left the church nave and sacristy at the center right. Inside, the church appears to us as the result of the restructuring of 1862, with plastered walls and two side altars.