Borgo di Torre Maina

Torre Maina is a hamlet in the Tiepido valley whose historic landmarks include a fourteenth-century defensive tower and the nearby parish church of Santi Pietro e Paolo. The tower’s river-stone walls, corbels and traces of battlements preserve its medieval form; the church, documented in 996, stands on a neighbouring rise.

Why it matters

Together, the tower and the pieve reveal Torre Maina’s medieval and religious history. The tower belonged to a fortified structure that gave the hamlet its name. The church has older origins, while its current appearance reflects a late-nineteenth-century reconstruction.

What to notice

At the tower, the river-stone masonry meets a later gabled roof; the surviving corbels and traces of battlements mark the former defensive structure. The church has three naves and a painting of Saints Peter and Paul in the apse, by the Modenese artist Luigi Manzini, active in the mid-nineteenth century. Its altars are made of scagliola, a polished plaster technique.

Context and history

The parish church began as a possession of the Benedictine monastery of San Pietro in Modena. A document of 996 records its early history, and the church was known until the late eighteenth century as San Pietro in Isola della Torre di Pietro Bono. It was rebuilt several times before taking its present late-nineteenth-century form.