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Church of St Mary Major in Labro: where an arsenal became a place of prayer
The Church of Santa Maria Maggiore (St Mary Major) stands at the highest point of Labro, a village in the Sabina region overlooking Lake Piediluco. It has not always been a church. Until the end of the 15th century, this was the armoury of the fortress of the Nobili family, lords of the village since 956. When Giovanni de' Nobili killed a priest, Pope Sixtus IV excommunicated the entire family. The price of absolution: to demolish the main tower and turn the arsenal into a sacred space.
From fortress to collegiate church
In 1508, Cardinal Colonna, Bishop of Rieti, elevated it to a Collegiate Church, making it the principal church of the territory. The stone façade preserves the 16th-century portal with columns supporting the entablature: this was the original gateway into the castle. The single-nave interior has ribbed vaults frescoed with a starry sky.
What to see
In the first chapel on the left, behind a wooden screen decorated with small roses and trefoils, is a 15th-century baptismal font with three fish carved into the basin. On the wall is an Annunciation attributed to Bartolomeo Torresani, a Veronese painter active in the Sabina region in the 16th century. On the upper floor, reached by an internal staircase, the Chapel of the Rosary has a portal dated 1494 with reptiles and scorpions carved in relief on the jambs, and a splayed Romanesque window.
