Church of San Giovanni Battista

Located inside the cemetery, the Church of San Giovanni has very ancient origins, certainly prior to the construction of the castle of Gavignano.

The church is never mentioned in the Farfensi documents because, since its foundation, it belonged to the “Massa Foronovana”, belonging to the Church of Vescovio.
Originally the parish church where the burials took place, first inside and then around its walls. Under the floor, according to the customs of the time, there were various common tombs: for the clergy, for children and for both sexes. These tombs will also be used after the construction of the church inside the castle.
Originally it had three naves and what remains is the left aisle.

Observing the wall structure of the building it is possible to note that most of the materials of the facing are nothing more than marble slabs of the Roman age – certainly inscriptions – that the “hunger for stones” typical of the Middle Ages, caused to be recovered and reused.
Large in size, it included, in addition to the main altar, several side altars (altar of the Epiphany, altar of St. Bernardino …). The pillar of the portal with the twelve-petaled flower, clearly Lombard, is rich in symbolic meanings. The bas-relief is composed as follows: twelve major petals (the apostles) plus an external one (Christ) enclose seven small petals (a number with a clear Christian symbolic meaning) and an internal rosette made up of 8 even smaller petals (Johannine cult).

Surely there was a sacristy and probably a rectory; in fact, we know that in the mid-1300s, together with the Archpriest of Gavignano, there were five other priests.

The church, which had fallen into disrepair, was definitively abandoned in 1775, when the new Church of the Assumption became a Parish Church.
The figure of the saint, on the other hand, did not lose its importance, so much so that ‘u Sangiuannittu is still today the patron saint of Gavignano: the celebrations of 29 August and the road that leads from the village to the cemetery are dedicated to him.

Masi V., ‘U Sangiuannittu. a bit of history not to forget, Forano, 2016