The Pieve di Tizzano is located in the locality of Tosca in the municipality of Tizzano Val Parma and is dedicated to St. Peter. Both for the strategic position in which it stands and for its architectural characteristics, the Parish Church of Tizzano is considered one of the “Matildic churches” or one of the many sacred buildings built by the direct will of the Countess Matilda di Canossa.

The church is located on top of a mountain from which you can see many important historical sites such as the cliff of Canossa, the castle of Rossena and the castle of Torrechiara. The building was probably built in the tenth century and even the first evidence of its existence we have only in 1005. In the eleventh and twelfth centuries the church was completely rebuilt on the present basilica, which consists of three naves flanked by six side chapels.

The façade is entirely covered with sandstone ashlars and is characterized by the presence of the slender bell tower, according to the “clocher-porche” pattern, typical of the French Romanesque churches of the time. The side chapels have been added several times to the highest Romanesque body while the main nave is covered by wooden trusses.

The walls are now covered with blocks of stone, but probably were plastered in the twelfth century and were decorated with frescoes in the fifteenth. Some paintings were found during the twentieth century restoration and have been removed and relocated in the Church of Santa Maria del Rosario in the center of Tizzano Val Parma.

CATEGORIA
Mountain parish churches
INDIRIZZO
43028 Groppizioso
Italia