The restoration of the 18th century ex-parish church provided the occasion for an archaeological investigation.The earliest stratigraphy in the central part of the church was largely disturbed by the transversal placement of seven underground funerary chambers. Eight man-holes in two lateral rows in the pavement of the same date gave access to the areas reserved for private individuals or confraternities, whilst an isolated analogous opening – in front of the presbytery – provided access to the cemetery reserved for the parish priests. The investigation identified ten consecutive chronological phases.
The main body of the first church (early medieval) developed on an E-W alignment. There was a central opening in the interior of the straight part of the semicircular apse, bordered by a pair of pilasters projecting towards the centre of the church which can be interpreted as a façade entrance to the church or as a restricted central apsidal space for a cult having the opposite orientation. Between the 9th and the first half of the 11th centuries a new cult building (second church) was constructed up against the church’s northern perimeter wall. The archaic construction technique of the walls, which used un-worked cobbles and still preserves traces of the original plastering, indicates a date earlier than the mid 11th century. The second church had three successive pavements: the first two in beaten silt, the last of mortar. Following the total demolition of the first church (13th century) a burial took place in the nearby outside area. This tomb was re-used in the 14th century for the deposition of a boy, who died aged about 15 (with evident anomaly of the left cheek bone), and – after about a year – a baby, placed above his right arm.
During the 15th century several fronts of the church were reconstructed and a new pavement and a porch with simple sloping roof.
In the first half of the 16th century, pre 1549, the choir was enlarged and three underground vaulted chamber tombs were constructed whilst, towards the end of the 17th century the whole of the external cemetery area was paved. Today’s building is the result of a substantial enlargement of the old one. To the NE of the new apse the earlier square 16th century choir was turned into a vestry. (Barbara Grassi, Roberto Mella Pariani)