Mas is situated on the border where the Agordino valley meets the Val Belluna, and has been an important crossroads since ancient times. The design project for the church in Mas, built between 2004 and 2006, represented an attempt to portray, through architecture, the Madonna, the discreet, simple woman the building is dedicated to. Thus, the outside of the church was imagined as a greyish-blue “cloak”, amid the “folds” of which a number of large, tall, narrow windows open out, allowing the light to flood into the nave, symbolising an overgarment that conceals the hair and the body, yet allows the features below to be hinted at. The outside coating of the walls, in rather cold titanium zinc, contrasts with the interior of the building, where a deliberate choice was taken not to use masonry structures, but to conceive the frame as a large roof in lamellar wood, made of a series of shell structures. The resulting spatial image resembles the hull of a ship turned upside down, a reference to the litany dedicated to the Virgin Mary that identifies her as the Ark of the Covenant. The warmth of the wood, together with the stone used on the floors and the back wall of the apse, gives the nave of the church the appearance of an inviting dwelling.  An important trait d’union between the outside and inside of the church is the bold relief carving around the main door, which features a reference to the Gothic theme of the “Virgin of Charity” who offers the faithful a motherly welcome below her cloak. The presbytery is also designed in such a way as to encircle the congregation, with the ground plan resembling the embrace of a human figure, his head coinciding with the position of the altar located in the chamber. The baptistery and the weekday chapel are located in independent volumes designed to underline their specific liturgical function. On the façade are a number of decorations sculpted in Carrara marble by Franco Fiabane, who also sculpted the bas-relief on the baptismal font (in white duralbo). The windows are decorated with the mysteries of the life of Christ, the work of Boranga. The Madonna Odigitria was painted by Brunetta Cornaviera, while the 14 Stations of the Cross are the work of Luciano Franzin. It is interesting to note the dual architectural/religious interpretation the building offers: for each form or material chosen, there is a symbolic explanation in sacred literature. The backdrop to the church itself is formed by the parish buildings and the rectory, a long, narrow building on two floors that is used to host a range of community activities.

From the SR 203, after Sedico, on the road towards Agordo, is the village of Mas. Go along the main street, Via Dolomiti; at the traffic lights at Piazza, turn right into Via Val di Fontana. The bell tower is already clearly visible from the road.
The Vignole lime factory is on the right side of the SR203, which links Mas with Sedico, at about 850 m from the roundabout at the beginning of the village of Mas, along the SR204.

ACCESSIBLE: yes
MUNICIPALITY: Sedico
PLACE: Mas
GEOGRAPHICAL COORDINATES: X 1741560 – Y 5116034
PROVINCE: Belluno

FILE COMPILED BY: Guadagnin

The lime factory of Vignole (84 IA), built in 1941 at Roe Alte, on the bank of the Cordevole, used the Bribano - Agordo railway line built in 1922 by the Montecatini company, to transport the material extracted from the Val Imperina mines. The factory, now abandoned, was the only one in the Veneto to produce lime on an industrial scale, using cutting-edge equipment. The raw material come from the open-air quarry in Sois, from where it was transported using a two-kilometre long cableway that has now been dismantled.  

A. De Biasio, C. Sacco, Guardando Oltre. Chiesa di Mas-Peron, Belluno, 2007
Parish of S. Gottardo in Mas-Peron, booklet Guida alla chiesa di Mas, dedicated to the Madonna Odigitria, Belluno, 2009
Various Authors  A Mas Peron la chiesa della Madonna Odigitria (guida) nelle parole dei suoi artisti, in “Dolomiti”, No. 1, 2008