History
It stands on the nice borough of Bribanet’s little square, next to the rail and road bridge over the Cordevole watercourse. It was built in 1502 by the brothers Bartolomeo and Francesco Buzzatti, and was hallowed on the 19th of June of the same year. They lived and worked with their father Vettor beside the church by making swords and blades for the numerous sawmills settled along the shore of the Cordevole. According to the local tradition, the Buzzattis were skilled blacksmiths who came from Buda (today Budapest). Their name derives from that town (
Budati in dialect) from where they probably had fled because of a pestilence. The family’s coat of arms, a
mèla (a blade used to saw trunks), together with the writing
Buzatorum (Buzzatti’s) carved on the main door, symbolizes their occupation and ownership of the oratory. Vettor is the founder of the genealogical tree, being the first one to be mentioned as living in Bribano. After troubled events, the municipality of Sedico bought the little church in 1896, following a loud remonstrance by the Bribano inhabitants caused by the selling of the famous triptych (along with the remarkable altar) to a Venetian antique dealer from a part of the Buzzatti family. It has been declared national monument still before the First World War (1915-1918). In 1916 some Italian soldiers occupied the little church but they were hosted somewhere else thanks to the intervention of Dino Buzzatti’s father. During the Second World War, even if it was badly damaged in the vault (then repaired by the
Genio Civile in 1945), the church was miraculously saved from the air bombings that destroyed most of the Bribano village. It had been restored several times in the past, but only this last restructuring work - completed in December 2002 - interested the building as a whole. The little church, being for some centuries an important commercial and working centre for wood production that was transported on water, is dedicated both to San Nicolò and to S. Rocco, the Saint protector against the plague that once periodically afflicted this area. The Virgin Mary was also invoked to have pardons and therefore some ex-voto were hanged along the inside walls. Mrs. Sara Tegner Zanella, descending from the Buzzatti family, has been taking care of the oratory for years.
