The pieve of Santa Maria in Acquedotto stands in the countryside of Forlì, on the road that leads to Ravenna, about 4 kilometres from the city centre, near the motorway tollgate.
What to see
According to tradition it stands where Trajan's aqueduct passed, hence the name of the pieve and of the hamlet, Pieve Acquedotto, although other theories would have the ancient course of the river Ronco here. The present church dates from the 13th century, built on the remains of an older Byzantine church, and takes up the motifs of Lombard Romanesque, recalling in parts the abbey of San Mercuriale in the centre of Forlì. The first mentions of the pieve date from 963; in the second half of the 14th century a rural unfortified village, Villa Plebis Acqueductus, is recorded nearby. Standing in the open plain, the pieve has suffered the raising of the ground level of the surrounding countryside and gradual burial: the original floor is today almost three metres lower.
The building has three aisles with T-shaped columns and, according to studies, at least three Romanesque phases: the first around the year one thousand, the second in the early decades of the 12th century, with the rebuilding of the bell tower and the addition of the crypt, of which only the blocked windows in the apse remain, the third in the middle or three-quarters of the century. In 1573 the floor, by then flooded by seepage, was raised with a stone surface, and the roof of the side aisles was raised, destroying the frescoes that decorated the aisles and apse. In the 18th century an earthquake brought down part of the right aisle, which was rebuilt at once; in the Second World War the little church was almost spared, and on the façade of the rectory some holes from an aircraft's machine-gun fire remain as scars. The Red Cross flag was then placed on top of the bell tower, and some precious paintings from Forlì's museums were sheltered in the rectory.
Visiting
The pieve is at Pieve Acquedotto, on the road to Ravenna; opening hours and Mass times should be checked with the parish, because the sources consulted do not give them.
Our editors' tip
Look at the exterior up close: the bricks change colour and form patches, superimposed layers that show the raisings and rebuildings, and in some places bricks recovered from the nearby demolished Roman aqueduct were reused. In the centre of the façade look for the mullioned window, whose column rests on an upside-down capital, probably a remnant of the earlier church.
