Chiesa di San Giovanni Battista

The first certain news regarding the church of San Giovanni dates back to 1529, the year it was established as a rectory, but it is likely that it originated in the 11th or 12th century. The original building was in a rural Romanesque style, with a single nave and trussed ceiling, facing west according to the ancient ritual. During the 19th century, as happened with other places of worship in the upper Val d'Illasi, the church of Bolca was rebuilt in its current neoclassical forms (1859-1860). The internal pictorial decoration is a 20th-century work by the painter Alessandro Zenatello. In 2002, a meticulous conservative restoration intervention was carried out on the bell tower, built in 1790 before the 19th-century renovation of the church.

Along the sides of the nave, four lateral semi-chapels open up, two on each side, with structures emerging from the outside, housing the same number of smaller altars, placed on an elevated base: the altars of the Madonna Addolorata and the Blessed Virgin on the western side, the altar dedicated to Saints Anthony the Abbot and Roch and the altar of the Sacred Heart on the opposite side. Near the entrance, in the first arch of the eastern side, there is a niche carved into the thickness of the wall, where the baptismal font was originally placed. On the eastern side of the presbytery, the sacristy is located, communicating with the apse area and also accessible from the nave.

The main entrance is reachable from the forecourt; along the western side of the nave, there is a side entrance. On the opposite side of the nave, an opening connects with the chapel dedicated to St. Teresa and St. John Bosco, which is attached to the side of the nave while maintaining the same main axis, and with the façade set back from the main front of the church. The bell tower rises attached to the western side of the presbytery, corresponding to the connection with the volume of the nave.

The façade is gabled. Two pairs of Doric pilasters support the frieze decorated with festoon motifs and frame the rectangular portal topped by a pediment, above which is an arched window. The pediment and tympanum are devoid of decorative elements. At the summit, an elegant iron cross stands out.