15th-Century Fresco Saved from Lichen Invasion – History

Two 15th-century frescoes have been restored in the church of San Martino in the Ligurian village of Rocchetta in Cairo. The frescoes, depicting the Virgin’s Enthronement and the fourth-century Egyptian ascetic Abbot Saint Anthony, were painted on one wall of the church by two different artists in the first half of the 15th century.

The chapel is essentially a single room, built around 1400 for use by a small rural community. Today, it is in a dilapidated state and is more of a religious symbol than a parish church for those living in the area. It is used every September when the community gathers for mass and luncheon.

The murals were in a very bad condition due to being exposed to wind and rain, as water seeped into the surface of the murals and grew a layer of green lichen, which severely damaged the murals and made them difficult to recognize, and also lost their original bright colors.

The restoration work, directly managed by the Superintendence of Archaeology, Fine Arts and Landscape of the Province of Imperia and Savona and supervised by Martina Avogadro, a conservation and restoration expert, included disinfection, deep and surface consolidation, cleaning, filling and color reintegration. […]

Finally, further stratigraphic tests and cleaning tests were carried out on all the walls of the church with the aim of finding other paintings hidden under the plaster, but without any positive results.