HISTORY
The present parish church of Castellarano, dedicated to Santa Maria Assunta, exists in a late-Baroque style of the seventeenth century. But in that historical moment, it was rebuilt on the ancient structure of a preexisting parish. Some archaeological remains under the present church attest to this early church, datable to the 9th century and later reconstructed at the time of Matilda of Canossa, or substituted by a second, Romanesque structure. Of this ancient structure, part of the walls survive under the pavement, in addition to the four columns with sculpted capitals and two corbelled capitals. If these architectural remains, on the basis of their characteristics can be dated to the Frankish domination of the area, the copy of the portal with lunette, located inside the church on the side of the altar of San Pancrazio, is from a later period, perhaps the 12th century. The present church was also subjected to significant restoration, from 1899-1901, when these Romanesque elements were discovered along with several others.

ART-HISTORICAL NOTES
The modern church is notably different from the previous one on the site. It is in the form of a Latin cross with four lateral chapels in the nave and two in the transept. Although a product of the 17th century, several of the church’s Romanesque elements furvive, such as the crypt and some of the pier bases, which demonstrate that the early construction was three-aisled with vaults, a raised presbytery and crypt. The crypt was partially restored with four colonettes surmounted by primitive capitals and abaci from the 11th-12th centuries. These capitals can be compared with those in the atrium in Sant’Ambrogio in Milan, those of Santo Stefano in Bologna, and the parish of Rubbiano, in both their energy and originality of detail.