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On the second window on the right side, there are sculptures of an eagle and a male figure with a phallic symbol against a column with a capital. Under the arch which joins the church with the farm house (where there is an apartment which is home to host the community of presbyters assigned to the Pieve) beside the horizontal arm of a Maltese Cross, there is a carving of a crude figure of a man with open arms. This is reminiscent of the widely spread figures of "oranti" (or worshipers), of paleo-Christian origin, typical in Romanesque decorations.

Finally, most important of all are the three raised apses, which are crowned with a suspended arch motif, set out like brackets.

Along the top of the central apse runs a frieze ornamented with animal and plant motifs. In the area between the the apses are columns whose capitals are carved with leaves, elements derived from the Abbey of St. Antimo.

Adjacent to the Pieve is a buried paleo-Christian cemetery and the remains of a Roman thermal bath complex of the Imperial age. This was discovered in 1904 and dates from the 2nd century B.C., and decorated with mosaics and painted with polychromatic murals.

 

 

It is suggested you visit the Museum of Sacred Art of the Confraternita di San Bernardino (the agency entrusted with the guardianship of the Pieve) who maintain it, and the church furnishings belong to the Pieve. They also voluntarily maintain a collection of tools and implements of the contadini culture organized at the farm house adjacent to the church.

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Eagle and phallus window detail

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Unusual inverted head window detail

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Apse detail

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The "oranti".

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