Pieve di San Salvatore

Pieve di San Salvatore is a Romanesque church in the Marano valley south of Rimini. Its twelfth-century fabric combines brick with reused Roman stone, while a Roman cippus records the name of a painter, Rainaldo, in 1318.

Why it matters

The church preserves the character of a rural pieve, a parish centre serving scattered communities in the Riminese countryside. Its Romanesque architecture and reused ancient materials connect the medieval religious landscape with the remains of Roman settlement in the area.

What to notice

The building has a single nave and an elegant apse, with four carefully carved Romanesque capitals. Foliage reliefs reused from Roman structures appear on the façade. A Roman cippus was repurposed for the 1318 inscription naming the painter Rainaldo. On the north side, a damaged fourteenth-century inscription survives in Gothic lettering. Inside, Cesare Ferronato's statue of the Saviour stands above the main altar.

Context and history

The municipality dates the church probably to the twelfth century. Local tradition holds that it was built on the site of a temple dedicated to Ceres. The Pieve's Romanesque capitals and apse place it among the medieval parish churches that anchored religious life across the countryside south of Rimini.