Nativity of the Beata Vergine

Parish church of La Serra.

Explaination: The parish church of Serra is very, very old: it dates back to 1148 as a parish part of the district of Campiano. The importance of the area is proven by the presence of two other churches, of which there are documents dating back to the 13th century, SanGregorio di Cereto or San Vitale della Serra, with the church of San Bartolo on a hill further to the south. Now the two names have passed to the farm houses now standing on the site of the two no longer remaining churches. In 1657 the church of Serra was becoming a ruin and therefore Cardinal Donghi ordered for it to be rebuilt, using the materials recovered from the church of San Gregorio di Cereto, which had been knocked down that year. Works were completed in 1659. The new church was with a “simple roof”, 8.79 m long and 3.51m wide with four windows. Above the main altar there is a canvas dating back to 1802 that depicts La Nativita della Vergine (the nativity of the Virgin), the work of Angelo Gottarelli of Imola, whilst the two side altars are dedicated to S. Gregorio Magno and S. Antonio Abate.The façade of the church was rebuilt in 1897 by parish priest Achille Bordoni, who also extended the farm house; other restoration works were carried out in 1955 after damages during the war (all these works are remembered on a commemoration stone placed on the façade in 1983). In the external walls of the choir, seemingly leftovers from the ancient church, there is Romanesque material. The bell tower was built between 1897-99. Behind the church there is the parish association.