There are records regarding the Pieve of San Giovanni in Compito which date back to the VII century. A papyrus from Ravenna, for example, tells about a religious building in a rural area. The Bavaro Code from X century, is another example. It defines San Giovanni as an ecclesia (church) between the VII and the VIII centuries and it also tells us of a  cathedral in honour of San Pietro. The Compito was on the borderline between the diocese of Rimini and the Roman metropolia.
People venerated San Giovanni and probably San Pietro too in the Compito during the VII century, when usually religious buildings were used in order to venerate pagan Gods.
The dedication to San Giovanni and the presence of a baptistery could speak of the ritual of baptism. San Giovanni is also linked to the symbols of fire, herbs and water; whereas San Pietro looks to ancient cults, and is sometimes linked to Jupiter. Probably during the Roman age, around the Pieve and the Cathedral there was also a cult temple, whose rests are still in the museum. Only in the X century the word plebs was used in relation to the buildings of the area. It is still unknown if the present structure of the Pieve is the same as it was in the VII century, since the structure dates back to the X XI century.
The façade immediately points out the inside subdivision into unique aisles and has an unnatural lowering that testifies to numerous restorations and remodellings. It ends with two large pilasters and a double steep roof; on the door there are two windows, discovered during the 1927 restorations. The building ends up with a straight apse as a result of the 1959/60 restorations, after the war. During those restorations, while remaking the floor, the foundations of the original circular apse which were destroyed in 1827, were found. In 1960 the original apse arcade was also tracked with its two building monuments.
The Pieve has always been considered the first centre of the museum because both on its façade and inside it ancient materials were used. On the façade, the lintel of the door, which dates back to the XI century,  is made of a plate of marble closed by a smooth fillet and decorated by a braid. On the façade there are also two headstones: on the right there is part of a plate with a vegetal decoration and on the wall there is part of a capital, both dating back to the XI century.
Coming inside the Pieve, you can immediately see two cubic capitals used as sacred fonts. The one on the right is made of marble and decorated with plants and bloom acanthus; the one on the left is made of limestone and decorated with acanthus leaves. The styles of the two capitals are very different, but they are both from the XI century. The capital that holds up the lectern near the altar , is from the same period and is decorated with interlacements and leaves. There are two pink marble plates from Verona which are instead from the I century A.C. The first one is used as an altar and is cut by another element, probably a Roman gravestone. The other one is customised to the entry of the Pieve and was probably the basis for the pillar of the fence of a gravestone.

Moreover there is a fragmentary column , found in 1962 in the northern wall of the church and put on the right of the altar. Over it there is a cross with the letters A and W leaning from chains.

................................................................................

SiteMap   |   Note Legali   Privacy   P.iva:00664470408  |

Copyright © Soprintendenza Archeologica dell'Emilia Romagna. All right reserved. Nessuna parte di queste immagini o reportage può essere riprodotto in alcuna forma o utilizzata per ottenere derivati senza autorizzazione scritta da parte del Soprintendenza Archeologica dell'Emilia Romagna, via delle belle arti, 52 Bologna.