HISTORY
The Church of SS. Simone and Giuda at Sanguinaro, in the commune of Noceto existed by the end of the 11th century. Two documents dated 1080 and 1095 link its foundation to a donation of the priest Mangifredo, who wanted to provide religious assistance to wayfarers and pilgrims who took refuge in the nearby hospice. The complex subsequently passed on to be a dependency of the Benedictine monastery of San Prospero at Reggio, and in 1168 it was ceded to the Knights Hospitaller of San Giovanni who maintained it until 1798.
In 1471, the young foundation became an autonomous commendam: an event that seems to all a post quem for dating the 15th-century restructuring and the consequent realization of the picture cycle in the apse. A plaque placed over the portal records that it was the ‘commendatore’ Alessandro Burzio, who in 1578, to rebuild where the building had collapsed over time, and repaint part of the 15th-century frescoes, and also shorten the upper church by at least two bays.
In 1864, the church was sold into private hands, at the beginning of the 20th century, a campaign of restoration was begun, the current rectory built in 1910.
ART-HISTORICAL NOTES
The beauty of the church’s crypt is well known. The structure is semi-underground, covered by rib and groin vaults. Round and squared piers punctuate the space, and little windows along the walls create a charming illumination. The wall and plan type place the church within a group of buildings dated to the early Romanesque period in the province of Parma: an artistic culture diffused in the second half of the 11th century. It is likely that the first church was in response to the requests of the priest Mangifredo to create two superimposed spaces that separately served the needs of the clergy on the one hand, and the laity on the other.
