HISTORY
The church of San Giovanni Battista is located at Renno, a small village of Pavullo in Frignano. The monument is so suggestive and enigmatic in its present form that it is difficult to unravel. It is uncertain when it was founded: it’s origins could be 12th century, or as early as the 8-9th century. When the seat of the first Christian church of San Vincenzo at Monteobizzo was in such dilapidated conditions that it was transferred to the church of San Giovanni, it became the most influential of the Modenese Apennines, with jurisdiction over thirty other churches. Over the course of the 18th century, the church underwent a reconstruction, verified by an inscription on the façade. However, with the exception of the apse and the 18th-century campanile, it is difficult to ascertain the ages of the various parts of the wall structure, executed in rustic stone.

ART-HISTORICAL NOTES
The gabled façade is without decoration, except for an apparently old portal at the center with an architrave, and three 18th-century windows. The 18th-century additions of ceilings and plaster prevent a more precise investigation of the building, and its fascination derives partially from this obstruction. The restorations that began in 1872 decisively altered its exterior structure, including the replacement of the portal and the insertion of the windows on the façade and the apse. The church is three-aisled, with a single apse and four bays. The beams of the wood roof were painted in the 18th century. In the apse and on the north side of the building the original walls are visible in the lower registers of ashlar blocks, as opposed to the more irregular tracts in the rest of the wall surface, which are the result of later campaigns.