San Sabino, Romanesque church in Spoleto, Italy
San Sabino is a Romanesque church about three kilometres north of Spoleto, left of the old Via Flaminia. It has three apsed naves of five bays with pointed vaults on three rectangular piers alternating with two masonry columns. The presbytery is raised eight steps above a 12th-century crypt, and the façade portal has four spolia marble jambs with regularly spaced cavities.
A church rose over Saint Sabinus's tomb perhaps as early as the 6th century, within a cemetery used from the 4th–5th centuries. The present Romanesque apse and right flank, built with reused travertine blocks up to two metres long, date to the 11th century; the interior was rearranged in the late 12th or early 13th century. In 1623 a Baroque high altar was added.
Local tradition holds that Sabinus was bishop of Spoleto, arrested at Assisi, mutilated and beaten to death in 310. Before military campaigns, both Spoletans and Lombards spent the night in prayer in his church. The crypt keeps his relics in a decorated urn.
The church stands about three kilometres north of Spoleto, on the left of the old Via Flaminia, so it is reached by car or local bus rather than on foot from the centre. The presbytery is raised and reached by eight steps, and the crypt lies below it. The parish is now shared with the church of the Sacro Cuore on Via Marconi.
The church's travertine blocks, some about two metres long, were reused from the Roman necropolis and other ancient buildings on the site; the lower part of the portal still shows them. The apse area, without pilasters and with wide hanging arches, is dated to the 11th century, while the interior was probably rebuilt in the late 12th century.
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