Martin M. Miles' photos with the keyword: Psicostasis

The church "San Carlo di Negrentino", originally dedicated to S. Ambrogio Vecchio, is located isolated facing a cliff that opens onto a vast panorama. A mule track led here from the Gotthard Pass over the Narapass to the Blenio Valley and to Bellinzona led past here near a deep gorge. The two-aisled church is first mentioned in writing in 1214, but goes back to an earlier time. It was created in two construction phases. The original Romanesque apse hall from the 11th century was probably extended in the 13th century in the south by a similar, but narrower room with a smaller apse. At that time the campanile was built on the north side of the building. The large fresco over the door depicts Archangel Michael and the "Weighing of the Souls".

Erected by monks of a near Cistercian abbey in the 12th century, the church, as well as the (lost) "hopital" served the pilgrims, that walked the Via Francigena to Rome (and back home). It was modified over the centuries, but a renovation in the 1930 brought back the Romanesque structure, that it was originally. San Biagio has an extraordenary tympanum. Seen is the "Weighing of souls" (= Psichostasia). Saint Michael weighs the souls in a scale the good and bad deeds, while the devils intervenes, using trickery to make the scale fall on his side and take the soul to Hell. Small heads symbolize the souls. On the left side of the scale seems to be the soul of a monk (tonsur). The soul on the far right - is already on the way to eternal damnation. The Weighing of Souls can often be found in France cand Spain along the "caminos" to Santiago de Compostella, but is not that often in Italy. Sergio Stocchi ("Italia romanica"), attributes this work to the workshop of Benedetto Antelami and dates it to the end of the 12th century.