The church of San Lorenzo is the parish church of Casumaro, a hamlet divided between the municipalities of Cento and Bondeno, in the province of Ferrara, and Finale Emilia, in the province of Modena; it belongs to the vicariate of Cento in the archdiocese of Bologna. It was built at the beginning of the fifteenth century, and in the middle of the century the waters of the river Reno flooded and devastated it. It became a parish in 1451, under the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of Modena: it passed to the archdiocese of Bologna in 1839.
What to see
Today's church is the result of several rebuildings. At the beginning of the sixteenth century it was rebuilt with a changed orientation: the old façade became a side wall, with a second entrance, and the bell tower was erected. From 1505 came a new nave, new side chapels and the cross vaults.
Another rebuilding, towards the end of the eighteenth century, brought the new marble high altar. The bell tower owes the appearance in which it has come down to us to an alteration of 1835; the façade was redone after the middle of the twentieth century, when the chapel of the baptismal font was also demolished.
Visiting
The Emilia earthquake of 2012 damaged it severely: it was declared unfit for use, with major problems to the façade and to the roof, which partly collapsed. After long restoration works it reopened to the public on 19 December 2020. Opening and Mass times should be checked with the parish.
Our editors' tip
One detail ties this church to Ferrara: in the works of the early sixteenth century, the model taken for the boarding of the ceiling was that of the hall of honour of Palazzo dei Diamanti.
