San Silvestro is a Romanesque-style deconsecrated Roman Catholic church located on Via Matteotti in the historic center of the town of Orte in the province of Viterbo, region of Lazio, Italy.

Church and bell-tower of San Silvestro

History

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The church was founded in the 12th century, putatively with a facade defined in 1195 by Binellius.[1] Separate from the nave, in a small garden is the square campanile, with mullioned windows. The interior of the church had been embellished over the centuries, but a 19th-century reconstruction led to the more spare interior seen today.[2]

In 1967, the church was converted into the Museo Diocesano e d'Arte Sacra (Diocese Museum of Sacred Art). Along with other panels and altarpieces from religious institutions, it displays an 8th-century Byzantine mosaic of the Madonna derived from the Oratory of Pope John VII in Rome.[3]

A column rescued from the refurbishment of the cathedral was erected in the piazza in front of the church.

Notes

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  1. ^ Handbook of Central Italy, by Karl Baedeker (1904); page 77.
  2. ^ Comune of Orte, entry on church.
  3. ^ Vista Orte website.

42°27′37″N 12°23′11″E / 42.46020°N 12.38641°E / 42.46020; 12.38641