The Pieve di San Nicomede is the oldest church dedicated to the saint in northern Italy. The present building, with a single hall covered with trusses with apse and crypt, is the result of the overlapping of several construction phases.

The oldest part, the crypt, dates back to the first layout of the church, perhaps from the 9th century; the apse, with central buttress, is 13th century, while the hall was built in the 14th century, as attested by the inscription above the entrance.

The building took on its present appearance with the works of 1909, when the two-coloured banded decoration of the hall was carried out and the bell tower and the façade were rebuilt in the Lombard style of the 15th century, to which the small portico (prothyrum), the rose window, the final notched cornice and the three pinnacles were added.

Inside, the crypt bears witness to a fairly widespread practice in the early Middle Ages, that of recovering and reusing elements of previous buildings. Possibly built in the 9th century, the small crypt with three naves is supported by four columns, two fluted from the Roman period, two from the Longobard period.

In the apse of the crypt there is a well whose water is considered miraculous. The marble slabs on the floor of the crypt and the well’s true are also architectural elements from the Roman period recovered and reused.

The crypt is an important example of great references to the Cathedrals of Parma and Modena.

CATEGORIA
Plain parish churches
INDIRIZZO
Località S. Nicomede, 68
43039 Salsomaggiore Terme