Pieve di San Venerio

Holding a more peripherical position within the city, the Pieve di San Venerio, with its two apses, was built on the ground of a residential building from the Imperial Age. It is one of the most ancient buildings of La Spezia and it is dedicated to Saint Venerius, hermit who lived on the island of Tino – one of the islands of the gulf of La Spezia – between the sixth and the seventh century.
The existence of a previous early-Christian temple is testified by a headstone dating before the 5th century. During the 80’s, after a series of archeological excavations, pre-Romanesque artifacts in fine ceramic and Roman building remains were unearthed.
Today, this church can be seen in its predominantly Romanesque style due to the reconstruction works of 1084 commissioned by the Vezzano family.
The stone-made gabled façade has a single lunar-arched entrance, topped by a mullioned window, whose ogival arches and the column with the leaf capital suggest Gothic interventions.
Inside, you will find a stone-made single nave with two apses, one bigger than the other.
The church is flanked by a bell tower, built on the southern side of the building approximately in mid-11th century and was completed using also Roman bricks. In addition to that, a useful internal staircase was obtained from the think wall of the tower – an architectural solution that was totally innovative for that time.