THE CASE OF THE TWO CHURCHES OF SANT’APOLLINARE IN PIEDMONT (ITALY): CAN ARCHAEOASTRONOMY HELP TO IDENTIFY WHICH OF THEM IS THE TEMPLAR ONE?

Abstract

In this paper we analyze the strange case of two churches located not far from each other, identified with the

same name, Sant’Apollinare, situated one in Carpignano Sesia (No) and the other in Fisrengo-Casalbeltrame

(No), at about ten kilometers each other, in the region of Piedmont, Italy. In a deed dated 1174 A.D it is

mentioned the Templar Mansione Sanctum Apollinarem, in the area of Novara, where the Count Guido of

Biandrate donates to the Templars everything he owned in the region Ruspalia, but there is not any

indication or land registry map to identify the exact position of the mansio. In these two places the Order's

presence is indicated by the archive historical documents, mostly, related to acts of buying and selling, but

despite this there is a diatribe for the identification of the “ Templar Church”. Additional means of

identification can be offered by an archaeoastronomical analysis of the temples within the context of their

surrounding landscape and skyscape. A twofold approach was chosen, consisting of an archaeoastronomical

examination of the temple’s orientations, and an analysis of placenames and documents which. The two

churches have been measured “in situ. Subsequently an appropriate statistical study was carried out in

order to infer the distribution function of the astronomical orientations with the aim to perform an

appropriate archaeoastronomical analysis. A set of appropriate statistical tests, based on artificial Neural

Network, were designed and applied in order to check the possible solutions. The result is that the church

that best meets the features of the Templar churches built in Piedmont is the church Sant’Apollinare in

Carpignano Sesia.