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The Church of St Lawrence Martyr: the story of a church with two lives
In Poggio San Lorenzo there is a church that has had two lives: one preserved in a monumental portal, the other still beating, the heart of the village. This is the story of the Church of San Lorenzo Martire. The tale begins with an ancient tradition, placing the first Christian community here as early as AD 64, and reaches the present day, divided between memory and the living parish.
The vanished church, seat of the Bishops
This place was so important that, during the barbarian invasions, it became the seat of the Bishops of the Sabina. And yet this historic church seemed cursed by misfortune. Destroyed, rebuilt in the 9th century, and finally defeated by rising damp, a silent enemy that sealed its fate and final demolition between the 18th and 19th centuries. All that remains of that ancient building today are the foundations of memory.
A portal at the cemetery’s gates, a church in the square
Yet its legacy has survived in two forms. Its "body" is a magnificent travertine portal — the only visible remnant — saved from destruction and repositioned as the stately entrance to the Municipal Cemetery. Its "spirit", meanwhile, lives on: local devotion and the parish community have been inherited by the new Chiesa di San Lorenzo Martire, which today stands in the centre of the village.
Both sites are worth visiting to see the church and its history. The ancient travertine portal, the sole surviving remnant of the historic church, stands at the entrance to Poggio San Lorenzo’s public cemetery, and can be visited freely. The present-day Chiesa di San Lorenzo Martire, which has followed in its footsteps, is located in Piazza Guglielmo Marconi, and is open for visits inside.
