Santa Maria della Lode, Romanesque church in Torri in Sabina, Italy.
Santa Maria della Lode is a Romanesque church in Torri in Sabina featuring a gabled facade and a bell tower on the right side. The stone exterior displays the simple, sturdy style common to medieval churches in this part of central Italy.
Construction of Santa Maria della Lode began in the 9th century on the plain where the Roman town of Forum Novum stood. It was destroyed by Saracens and rebuilt and restored several times; its semi-annular crypt dates from the 11th century and the bell tower from the 10th-11th centuries, built largely from spolia taken from Forum Novum's ruins.
The single nave is decorated with a Last Judgment fresco from the 13th–14th centuries, with scenes from the Old and New Testaments. In the apse basin stands the venerated icon of the Virgin and Child known as the Madonna della Lode, which gives the church its name.
The church stands in the plain of Vescovio, a hamlet of Torri in Sabina, on the site of the Roman Forum Novum; it is reached by road from Torri in Sabina or Stimigliano. The bell tower, built largely from spolia taken from the Roman ruins, is the landmark to look for when approaching.
The bell tower was built largely from spolia taken from the ruins of the Roman town of Forum Novum, which stood on the same plain. Look at the masonry of the tower for reused Roman stone blocks.
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