The Pieve di Casanova has very ancient origins, a document testifies its presence since 898. It played an important role in a valley that was the gathering point for all the traffic routes going up the Apennines that led from here to the Ligurian side, towards Chiavari or, after crossing the Taro, towards Tuscany.
Outside, the façade is in neoclassical style, a clear sign of restoration work that has changed its original appearance.
The oldest church had three naves marked by four insistent columns on square pillars, probably with three apses of which only two have come to light, while the third, probably demolished to make room for the bell tower. The ancient building was similar in size to the present one, therefore remarkable for the time.
The present church is in eighteenth-century forms with three naves with square pillars inside and a salient facade, with a raised central cusp, tripartite and closed at the corners by Doric pilasters at full height, surmounted by dice with pinnacles.
In the Romanesque period a further structure made of local stone was superimposed on the original structure, characterized by important masonry about one meter thick and paving, also in stone.
Inside, as was customary until the end of the eighteenth century, burials took place, for which a special building was later prepared, still visible today next to the church.
Casanova
