Barbarolo
Subject: Religious buildings
Toponym: SS. Pietro e Paolo
Type: Church
Municipality: Loiano
Locality: Barbarolo
Description
The Church of Barbarolo, dedicated to Saints Peter and Paul and rebuilt in the 20th century, rests upon a proto-Romanesque parish church dating from the 7th-8th century AD.
There are valuable surviving traces of the original building, coeval with the crypt of Santa Maria of Montovolo: capitals with intertwined leaves, probably dating from the tenth century, are still visible.
The present-day structure is ascribable to 18th-19th century renovations which completely altered the pre-existing forms.
The name Barbarolo derives from the Late Latin Plebs Barbarorum, or Parish Church of the Barbarians, because of the populations of Goth origin who immigrated into the Po Valley area, venturing as far as the Apennine Mountains.