Church of San Cristoforo of Labante

Church of Labante, starting point of various paths

The church of S. Cristoforo is mentioned for the first time in 1378 among the parishes dependent on the plebanate of Pitigliano. S. Cristoforo was demolished in 1633 because it threatened ruin. It was rebuilt in the Baroque forms that still characterize it, but its orientation was reversed. In 1794 the bell tower was built using travertine from the quarry below. The bells were purchased by the church of Santa Maria Labarum Caeli in Bologna, which was suppressed in the Napoleonic era. The summit spire was placed there at the end of the 19th century. Substantial restorations were carried out in 1872 by the abbot Ruggeri and the counts Nanni Levera, as attested by an inscription painted on the main door. The church was damaged during the Second World War and, according to local historians, poorly repaired in the 1960s by the Civil Engineers to the point that, in a short time, the cornices and large windows of the bell tower collapsed again. In 2001, at the instigation of Don Gaetano Tanaglia, abbot and parish priest of Santa Maria and Santo Stefano di Labante di sotto and consequently also of San Cristoforo, a general restructuring work was started on the church starting from the roof, for which the ancient tiles. The intervention immediately following concerned the evident lesions in the vault and the restoration of the walls; the interior was finally completely repainted. By 2005 the external walls were freed from the plaster and brought in exposed stone. As part of the same interventions, the bell tower was restructured with new large windows and the sacristy was restored.
From the website: chieseitaliane.chiesacattolica.it/chieseitaliane/AccessoEsterno.do?mode=guest&type=auto&code=64782