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Church of St Nicholas in Torri in Sabina: the village's first place of worship
Just outside the town centre of Torri in Sabina stands the Church of San Nicola, a 16th-century building. According to Cardinal Carlo Odescalchi, who visited it in 1833 during a pastoral visit, it was the village's first place of worship — a detail that changes the way you look at it.
A confraternity behind its origins
It was founded and run by the Confraternity of the Gonfalone, as attested by a bull issued by Pope Gregory XIII in 1585. The fresco on the left wall — the Virgin Mary sheltering members of the confraternity under her mantle — is still there as a reminder. In 1703 the church underwent restoration works, as noted by Cardinal Andrea Corsini during his pastoral visit in 1779.
What to see inside
The interior is simple. A single nave with a black-and-white checkerboard floor in cementite, a marble altar at the centre of the presbytery, and the wall-mounted altar table built in 1927. A curiosity: the high altar is not dedicated to St Nicholas, but to the Virgin of Good Counsel, depicted in the altarpiece alongside St Joseph. St Nicholas appears instead on the right side altar, painted on canvas with St Roch and the guardian angels.
The façade and the bell tower
The façade has a gabled profile, with a single central entrance and a small oculus below the ridge. The square-based bell tower rises near the sacristy, with a brick belfry and a pyramid-shaped roof.
