Of the church of San Giorgio, located outside the Sommoborgo gate, with annexed monastic structures, a cemetery area and a bell tower, little more remains today than the apse part, in Romanesque style, datable to the 12th century, already reduced to a small chapel in the 19th century , after the demolition of the body with three naves, divided by columns with capitals. It is mentioned for the first time in 1078 in a papal bull of Pope Gregory VII which subordinates it to the monastery of San Benedetto di Leno. It then remained under his control until the end of the 16th century until it was reduced to a small chapel of which we recognize the apse.

«The apsidal surface, perforated by single lancet windows, is made of squared and flattened ashlars of sandstone, arranged in rows that are not always regular, with a lively and elegant score and variations of the decorative syntax. It is punctuated by four slender semi-columns, which end in capitals with two orders of water leaves and “caulicoli” (stems) with a mixtilinear abacus above for the support of the blind arches. They support monolithic hanging arches resting on shelves decorated with quadrupeds or protomes of animals and men, very deteriorated. Sculptural reliefs of different projection also in some of the sub-arches, also monolithic, among which the theme of the daisy with eight petals inscribed in a circle and that of the palm is recurrent, which find a close stylistic comparison with the apsidal reliefs of the parish church of Sant’Andrea di Montedivalli. In the internal Lunigiana the sculptural intervention is mostly understood as a covering and enrichment of support, figured capitals, as in the examples of the churches of Codiponte, Vendaso, Pognana, Aulla, or the more meager and schematic elements, synthetic as quotations, of the external arches of the apses. Sculpture, therefore, limited to the symbolism of the supports of the House of God, in measured or restricted fields, but which also link their stylistic language to spatiality.» (E.M. Vecchi)

photos: arch. Elia Santini