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Church of Our Lady of the Walnut in Tarano: the church born from an apparition
The Church of the Madonna della Noce is located a few miles from the centre of San Polo, in the municipality of Tarano. Small and rural, it was built in 1505 after the Virgin Mary appeared to a young local peasant girl to call the people back to faith.
From the faithful's offerings to the Servite friars
The church was born from the voluntary offerings of the entire community — as confirmed by the pastoral visit of Cardinal Andrea Corsini (1779–1782). A later source, the visiting Cardinal Carlo Odescalchi (1833–1836), adds another detail: the construction supposedly took place on land belonging to a certain Lorenzo Tiburzi. Two versions that coexist. In 1615, Cardinal Giustiniani mentions it in the manuscript of his pastoral visit, and notes it was in the care of the Order of Servants of Mary.
What to see
The exterior is simple: a gabled façade plastered in white, a round-arched portal, and a bell gable on the left slope. Inside, a single nave with terracotta flooring and four exposed wooden trusses supporting the roof. The presbytery, with a straight-ended termination, is raised two steps above the nave, with a marble altar table supported by two pairs of small lateral columns and a central block — a post-conciliar liturgical adaptation, carried out between 1970 and 1980. The interior is entirely plastered and painted, and on the side walls there are still 16th-century frescoes — one more reason to visit.
