Pieve del Thò

Description: The church Pieve del Tho is the oldest place for meditation and prayer in the valley. Entitled to St. John the Baptist, legend connects it origins to a gift that Galla Placidia, daughter of Teodosio, wanted to offer Giove Ammone. The Romanesque church was built on a plan of a basilica with three naves supported by columns of different widths of granite and red marble from Verona. The bell tower, 21 m. high on a square base, dates back to the year 1000. In the apse there is an elegant mullioned window. Once you enter, your eye is attracted to a wood statue of the Madonna of Melograna, by a Corinthian capital with acanthus leaves which acts as a holy water stoup. The four columns on the right bear a Roman inscription from the era of Valentiniano II. On the last column on the left there is a shell fossil which leaves one to suppose that the marble came from Egypt. In the presbytery there are some frescos that are thought to date back before the year one thousand. The crypt, mysterious and full of surprises, sheds light on the possibility that the structure was used for other than religious reasons. Terracotta containers, bowls, and plinths act as a frame for a Roman Capuchin tomb, and there is a singular and curious thermal element for inhalations and a small sarcophagus containing the ashes of San Claro the martyr.
From Saturday, June 14, 2014 the crypt of the church and some adjacent rooms, discovered and investigated several times in the last century, will finally open to the public and will thus have a guided tour accompanied by panels to discover the history and curiosities of this extraordinary monument.