HISTORY
The first written mention of the parish church of San Martino in Rafaneto is from 1059, however the first certain reference in not until 1230. These records inform us that this little church was the primitive settlement of Verrucchio, which later moved to the top of the hill in a fortified precinct. It is presumed that the architecture is datable to the 12th century, but recent studies, after the interventions of restorations, an earlier building has been hypothesized, on the foundations of a Roman settlement. Several damaged bricks and other fragments confirm these hypotheses. During the archaeological digs of 1893, three Roman tombstones from the imperial era were found, as well as a sundial from the same period, which are today preserved at the Sasso Fortress. The monastery reached its apex in the centuries between the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, while a progressive decadence began in the 17th century, when its titles were transferred. In the following centuries, it was reused for various agricultural purposes, which profoundly impacted the state of conservation of the artwork. The last phase of restorations have brought back many of the original Romanesque features.

ART-HISTORICAL NOTES
The church was built of local stone in an archetypal Romanesque form. It has a single nave with a semicircular apse, datable to the 10th century, and a massive bell tower, emblems of a late-Romanesque culture, still rooted in this territory in the 13th century. The church is found at the feet of the cliff of Verrucchio, outside the town of San Martino in Rafaneto, and its use as a farm led to the insertion of the façade in a farmhouse, today uninhabited. The two major Romanesque structural elements are the nave and the campanile.