In Pinzolo, the Danse Macabre That Parades for Twenty-Two Metres

There are works of art that everyone photographs, and others we stop before almost by chance. The Danse Macabre of Pinzolo belongs to the second category. You'll find it painted on the outer wall, exposed to sun and frost, of the cemetery church of San Vigilio, slightly outside the village, in the countryside of Sorano. Not a museum, not a display case: just a fresco and the mountain air.

It was signed by Simone Baschenis de Averara, a painter originally from the Bergamo area, who completed it on 31 October 1539. The wall runs for about twenty-two metres and stages a procession of figures: pope and cardinal, emperor and king, rich man and beggar, friar and child. Each is taken by the hand by their own skeleton and dragged into a silent dance. The message is ancient and merciless in its simplicity: before death, neither titles nor wealth count for anything. Beside it there also survives a Triumph of Death, with an inscription in verse that gives voice to Death itself.

The theme of the dance of the dead is of Northern European origin and remains fairly rare in Italy, which makes this cycle all the more precious. Yet few know it outside the Val Rendena. While Madonna di Campiglio, a few kilometres higher up, fills with skiers and traffic, the little church of San Vigilio remains off to one side, reachable on foot in a few minutes from the centre of Pinzolo.

It's worth arriving unhurried. The exterior can be viewed freely, but for the interior it's best to ask in the village about opening hours, which vary with the seasons. Visit respectfully: it is, after all, a burial place, not a photo set. Read the verses, follow the faces, let time slow down.

The best months are the mild ones, from May to September, when the light rakes across the wall and the valley's trails invite you to linger longer. A small yet great monument, to be discovered without haste and without the crowds.

How to get there

The church of San Vigilio with the Danse Macabre stands just outside the centre of Pinzolo, in the Val Rendena. By car you take the Brenner motorway A22, exiting at Mezzocorona and continuing along the state road up the valley. The reference airport is the Catullo of Verona-Villafranca; the nearest railway station is that of Trento, from which you continue by public transport towards the Val Rendena.