St Peter’s Church, located in the hamlet of Groppo, features a central structure dating to 1621, a sandstone baptismal font from the late fifteenth century and a wooden pulpit from the sixteenth century.
The church’s coffered ceiling dates to the second half of the seventeenth century, and its interior conserves numerous works of art:
– the seventeenth-century paintings of St Peter the Apostle, which is attributed to Giovanni Lanfranco, and the Madonna and Child.
– a famous organ made by organ builders Piacentini and Battani in 1861, enclosed in an eighteenth-century organ case.
The church now houses the recently restored Lagadè Passion Cross, named after the nearby farmhouse which it originally came from; it was carved out of chestnut wood at the end of the eighteenth century in thanksgiving for the locality’s salvation from the devastating landslide of 1786.
Standing near the church, the bell tower bears an inscription on the carved lintel of its doorway which mentions the historic village of Flaminiatico; no longer existent, this was one of the main communities of the area destroyed in the fifteenth century either by warfare or natural causes. Above the lintel, set into the façade of the bell tower, can be seen a beautiful stone carving of a sun.
During the Christmas period, the church hosts nativity scenes created by Giancarlo Amidei which faithfully reproduce the small villages and hamlets around Riolunato.
