Titolo: Church of Santa Maria della Neve
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Church of Santa Maria della Neve

Located in the characteristic St. Valentine Square, the church has early-Medieval origins, when it was still a small countryside parish around which arose the first inhabited centre that would later have been fortified.

The classical façade is very simple, its interior has a single nave whose walls are framed into blind arcades, and a semicircular apse. The last altar on the right preserves, behind a wooden protection painted with a symbol referring to the Madonna, an unexposed canvas depicting the mother of Jesus.

Penna in Teverina

The apse basin is decorated with a 17th century painting, The Madonna of the Snow and Saint Valentine, patron saint of Penna in Teverina.

The Church of St. Maria della Neve of Penne in Teverina was mentioned at least in 1476, when it was still a small countryside parish, which became the nucleus of the first inhabited centre that would later have been fortified. The structure was enlarged and completely renovated in the 16th and 17th centuries.

The original structure was probably located in the same spot of the current one, but it must have been a very simple structure, certainly smaller than the current one. It was transformed during the 1600s; there were many payments made in 1639.

On the main altar there must have been, at least since the 15th century, a painting depicting the Lady Mary and the saints Valentine and Sebastian, replaced in 1700 by the current painting.

Today the church features 17th century shapes that are extremely simple and linear: a very simple façade and a gable roof on which stands a little bell tower with two small arches.

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