Parish Church of Saint Thomas of Canterbury

Romanesque church.
In 1230 the chapel of Gattatico was placed under the parish church of Sant'Eulalia di Sant'Ilario.
In 1628 it passes under the Vicariate of Castelnovo di Sotto and in 1691 it depends on the Vicariate of Sant'Ilario.
In 1841 the church was subject to the Pieve di Sorbolo then, in 1853, it passed to the Diocese of Reggio Emilia.
The parish church, dedicated to St. Thomas of Canterbury, is of Romanesque origin but has undergone many transformations over the centuries.
The original entrance was located to the east where the choir and presbytery are currently located.
The building retains the relief image of an angel on a brick dating back to the 11th-12th century.
The facade, liturgically oriented, has fifteenth-century characters with a double escape of blind arches in the eaves frame.
The archivolted portal is surmounted by a large niche in the face on semi-columns.
The construction of the bell tower, with a cell with single lancet windows and a pointed roof, dates back to 1882.

The patronage of this church—dedicated to Saint Thomas of Canterbury—takes us geographically away from the Italian peninsula, across the Alps, and further north to the British Isles. In terms of time, we return to the 12th century. Thomas Becket was Archbishop of Canterbury and, in the conflict between the Church and the Crown (King Henry II), a "martyr of canon law and ecclesiastical freedom," as Pope Alexander III put it on the occasion of his canonization (1173, just three years after Thomas's violent death). His feast day in the calendar of saints is December 29th.