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Pieve S. Maria di Valfabbrica:
The Exterior


[image ALT: Some small stone buildings in a field, in two groups separated by four pines or firs. It is a view of the church of Pieve S. Maria, and a nearby house, in Valfabbrica, Umbria (central Italy).]

Like many abbeys in central Italy, S. Maria sits quite discreetly in its landscape: the more prominent building to the left is just a house. The low building is the church: we see the back of it and the left side, and, dimly thru the early spring trees, the back of the façade's triangular pediment.

(The most instructive photograph of the outside of the Pieve, though, is still the one on the orientation page.)

Keep on walking that circuitous gravel road, and you'll come around to the front of the church:


[image ALT: A building of not completely regular courses of small stone masonry, seen end-on: a roughly rectangular façade, though extended at the top into a triangle, the whole about 6 meters tall and 4 to 5 meters wide. It has a narrow arched doorway, and rather far above it, a small circular window. It is a view of the façade of the church of Pieve S. Maria in Valfabbrica, Umbria (central Italy).]

If you thought you were going to walk into the church thru its front door, well, no. You'll walk along the side wall on the right — which I photographed mostly because of the ridge extending the length of the church (what is it, and why?) —


[image ALT: A section of stone wall about 8 or 9 meters long, marked by a projecting ridge traveling the full length of it. It is a view of the masonry along one exterior wall of the church of Pieve S. Maria in Valfabbrica, Umbria (central Italy).]

and this little side door gets us inside:


[image ALT: A small arched door in a stone wall. It is the side door of the church of Pieve S. Maria in Valfabbrica, Umbria (central Italy).]


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Page updated: 30 Jul 04