Pieve di San Genesio

The Pieve di San Genesio is located in the open countryside near San Secondo Parmense, in the province of Parma. The first evidence of the existence of the church is dated 1016, the year in which it was restored; this makes us think that the church was much earlier than the year of restoration.

The parish church of San Genesio perfectly reflects the Romanesque stylistic canons, showing a typically gabled façade. The small portal opens centrally to the nave, dominated by small windows that illuminate the interior of the church, which has a plan with three naves and four bays, interspersed with brick columns and capitals.

The main apse has a semicircular shape and is slightly protruding; at the top of the apse there are a series of small single-lancet windows with round and double conch. The bell tower is characteristic, in the south front.

Very interesting is the area of the presbytery: in it rises a very high altar that starts from the crypt. In the floor, at the height of the third bay, you can see a wall: the hypothesis is that there must have been a building, dating from the eleventh century, which went from the crypt to the wall. In the 13th century then, due to a flood, the crypt was filled in and brought back to the level of the current floor. Was there a building before the eleventh century?

In 1787, when the church was now in disuse, the facade and the first three bays were demolished and the side naves were converted to “secular” uses. Only the restorations of the 70s of ‘900 have brought to light and the ancient decoration of the structures of the thirteenth century.