Santa Croce, Romanesque church in Sparone, Italy.

Santa Croce is a Romanesque church built against the perimeter walls of the Rocca di Sparone. Its apse and right side are decorated with lesenes alternating with paired hanging arches, while the left side leans on the fortress masonry. A pronaos and a chapel dedicated to Saint Vincent Ferrer were added in the 18th century.

The Rocca di Sparone is documented from 1000, when Otto III donated it to the church of Vercelli, stripping Arduino of Ivrea of his feudal rights. Tradition holds that Arduino withstood Henry II's siege there in 1004–1005. Contested in the 12th century by the San Martino and Valperga families, it passed to the Marquis of Monferrato and was ceded to Savoy in 1389. The castle was dismantled in the 16th century; only the church survived, serving as parish church until San Giacomo in the village took over.

The church kept the role of parish church of Sparone for centuries, until the function passed to San Giacomo in the centre of the village. Its name, Santa Croce, refers to the Holy Cross. The Gothic frescoes uncovered by the restorations begun in 1999 are the element visitors notice most.

The church stands on the Rocca di Sparone, on the hilltop above the village, not in the centre; it is reached on foot along the path up to the castle ruins. The left side leans against the perimeter walls of the rocca, while the apse and right side carry the hanging arches.

The four evangelists in the apse frescoes are not shown as the usual Tetramorph symbols but as human figures with carefully drawn faces and robes, given coloured wings and holding scrolls with passages from their Gospels. The model goes back to 12th-century Romanesque capitals carved in France.