Thursday to Sunday 10am-12pm
The "pieve di Santa Maria in Castello" was founded in 752/753 by the Lombard King Astolfo; it was called La Sagra after the official recognition by Pope Lucio III in 1184. The building was reconstructed during Matilda di Canossa’s period (between XI and XII centuries) with Romanesque architectural and decorative features, still visible nowadays on the apses and side walls.
The facade was made on a project by Baldassarre Peruzzi after 1503, when the church was reduced by order of Alberto Pio III to build the new Collegiata in the big square. The Crucifixion lunette, Romanesque bas-relief by Nicola Pisano, was relocated on the portal. Inside, worthy of note, the XIII-XV centuries late-gothic frescoes, the marble ambo and the sarcophagus of Manfredo Pio, made in 1351 by Sibellino da Carrara.
Next to the Sagra apse area there is the Bell Tower, about 50 meters high, built between 1217 and 1221.
