Pieve di Sant'Ilario Baganza

The Pieve di Sant’Ilario Baganza stands at the foot of the first hills of Val Baganza. It is noted that the village, the church, the ancient hospital and a miraculous stone, are named after Sant’Ilario, patron saint of Parma, who on his return from a long journey in Turkey after having been in exile there, stopped in the village and rested on a stone that later became thaumaturgical.

Sources of oral tradition tell of the healing properties attributed to the stone of Sant’Ilario and how during the festivities, a large crowd from the province, from Reggio, Modena and beyond, came to “kiss and touch, especially if suffering from rheumatic diseases, a large stone brought there by the saint”.

Initially the stone, also known by the name of moroj stone, was located outside the church. Later, it became necessary to move the stone inside, in a place where it could be touched only by raising the hands, this because of the behaviour of the faithful in front of it; it was in fact customary to rub the sick parts of the body against the stone, making the hygienic conditions precarious as well as in bad taste.

The very ancient origins of the parish church are testified by precious Romanesque ornaments such as capitals, columns, bas-reliefs and sandstone tombstones still visible today.

Externally, the church has a gabled façade in neoclassical style that covers the original typically Romanesque appearance, clearly visible in the rest of the exposed stone structure. The main entrance is surmounted by a mullioned window.

The structure has a single nave flanked by two chapels, with a raised presbytery and a flat end. The apse is illuminated by a single lancet window on the back wall.

In the oldest part of the church, the central one, there are two sandstone capitals with decorations of leaves and racemes. In one of them is represented the struggle between two men against the hydra as a symbol of the struggle of Christians against the evil one; on the other capital an eagle without head.

Recognizable inside is the Stone of St. Hilary bearing the engraving PHS (Petra Sancti Hilarii). The presence of this stone, recognized with miraculous properties attributed to the saint, was always held in great consideration by the numerous pilgrims who came to revive the health of the body and activate protection against snake bites, another quality that was attributed.

Another interesting detail of this parish church is the presence of two stone slabs with engravings referring to extraordinary events, such as the numerous ones present in the parish church of Moragnano, related in this case to the invasion of locusts in 1480.