The Church of Campo Tizzoro

Between 1910 and 1911 the Società Metallurgica Italiana (SMI) built a new industrial complex in the wide valley bottom at the confluence of the streams Maresca and Bardalone. According to some authors, the battle between Catilina and the troops of Petreio, loyal to the Roman Republic (67 b.C.), took place right in that area.
Around the new factory, the town of Campotizzoro emerged and, later, the same SMI built a church designed by the architect Ottavio Marchetti, dedicated to St. Barbara, and which was consecrated on 23 August 1940. The large church has a planimetric plan with a single rectangular nave, covered by gabled wooden ceiling supported by trusses, ending with quadrangular apse, and covered by flat plastered ceiling. The presbytery is raised compared to the body of the church and it is separated from the latter by a marble balustrade and a triumphal arch; a second arch separates it from the apse.
Externally, the entire building is covered with slabs of bichrome marble placed in horizontal bands. The gabled façade is characterized by the opening of the entrance portal, surmounted by a lunette with bas-relief, by a large rose window on axis with the latter, and by two imposing corner lesene with two niches holding marble statues situated in their lower part. The sides of the building are marked by square buttresses containing large stained monofore. On the right back part, there is a small porch, supported by columns resting on a stone base, which connects the church to the bell tower.