Brugnato Cathedral

According to some sources,[1] supported by finds in the foundations, the first religious building on the site was constructed in the 7th century[1] over a palaeochristian necropolis, the church of a monastery dependent on Bobbio Abbey, founded by and dedicated to Saint Columbanus.

It was rebuilt in the 11th-12th centuries,[1] passed to a resident community of Benedictine monks, and became in 1133 the seat of the diocese of Brugnato[2] (suffragan of the Archdiocese of Genoa) which had spiritual authority over the middle and upper Val di Vara.

With the arrival of the Ghibellines during the 14th century,[2] and the consequent flight of the bishop, who took refuge in Pontremoli, the cathedral lost importance, although it remained as the church of the abbey of the Benedictine community.

[3] The groundplan is based on two asymmetrical naves separated by columns, a fairly common arrangement in the religious buildings of Lunigiana although less so in the churches of Liguria.

A painting by Vincenzo Comaschi, dated 1821, depicts the Virgin Mary with the Infant Jesus on her lap among angels and Saints Francis and Laurence.