Pieve di San Leo

The Pieve di Santa Maria Assunta is the first witness to Christianity in these mountains. Tradition has it that it stands where St Leo built his first oratory; the church you see is the result of work between the 9th and 11th centuries, and is the oldest religious monument in Montefeltro.

It straddles a protrusion of rock, and for this reason beneath the naves there are two spaces: the crypt and the shrine of St Leo, with an apse carved directly into the stone. In the shrine there is the front of a sarcophagus with two peacocks drinking from a vase, the oldest sculpture in the building.

The three apses, with their arches of stone and brick, are typical of the Romanesque style of San Leo. Inside, the naves are divided by columns and pillars that alternate; the six columns and four Corinthian capitals are Roman or late antique pieces, reused by medieval builders.

Like the cathedral, the Pieve also has no entrance on its façade. It stands right on Piazza Dante, next to the Palazzo Mediceo with the Museum of Sacred Art: a twenty-minute stop before climbing up to the fortress.