Pieve di San Pantaleone, Romanesque church in Pieve a Elici, Italy
Pieve di San Pantaleone is a basilica-plan church in Pieve a Elici, with three naves divided by round arches on limestone piers and ending in a single apse. Its facade is clad in carefully cut opus quadratum limestone from the 12th–13th centuries, while the rougher north side shows 10th–11th-century masonry. The bell tower was made from an earlier defensive structure.
The church was first documented in 892 and underwent several phases of rebuilding and expansion over centuries. The current structure dates mainly from the 12th and 13th centuries, when it took on its Romanesque form.
The church's name changed over time: it was first dedicated to Saint Ambrose, then to Saint John the Baptist, and finally to Saint Pantaleone. The toponym Elici comes from ilex, the Latin name for the holm oak that grows abundantly on the hill. Inside, a 14th-century fresco of the Madonna and Child was found during restorations in 1906.
The pieve stands in the hamlet of Pieve a Elici, in the comune of Massarosa, on a hill covered with holm oaks. The bell tower was made from an earlier defensive structure, so look for the tower incorporated into the church rather than a free-standing campanile. The church is reached from the small piazza shared with the canonica.
A volcanic stone basin sits in the square between the church and the rectory, possibly dating from Roman times. This object suggests the site was inhabited and worked long before the church was built.
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