Audio transcription
In the presbytery area, you will notice that the decoration is more modern than the frescoes on the pillars: the geometric and plant motifs date back to the sixteenth century, while traces of the original Benedictine decoration remain in the left apse, showing Christ the Judge at the centre, set against a blue background, flanked by the archangel Gabriel accompanying two souls, the whole enclosed in a lively frame with a diamond motif.
In the vault above, the mystical lamb appears with the four Evangelists, frescoed by Liberale da Verona in the sixteenth century. Around the altar, the remains of the foundation of the early Christian church from the fifth-sixth century can be seen through the grates in the floor. The relics of Saints Fermo and Rustico were buried in the pit behind the altar. To protect them from flooding of the Adige River, they were moved to the upper church in 1759, leaving a reliquary containing fragments of the skulls of the two martyrs in the lower church. The fine wooden crucifix dates back to the fourteenth century, when the Franciscan friars settled here.
