BAGNACAVALLO. - A small town in the province of Ravenna; among its most noteworthy religious monuments are the church of S. Michele (fifteenth-century apse decorated with terracottas, seventeenth-century wooden choir stalls and altar, and paintings by Bartolomeo Ramenghi known as il B.) and that of S. Francesco, rebuilt in 1796 (stuccoes and fine wrought ironwork). Also of interest are several houses dating from the fifteenth to the seventeenth centuries.
The nearby parish church of S. Pietro in Silvia is one of the most interesting medieval buildings in the Ravenna area. Mentioned in documents from as early as the eighth century, it has three naves divided by piers without bases or capitals. Its construction is generally attributed to the sixth century, but some historians, following Galassi, consider it, more reasonably, to date from the seventh. The small double-splayed windows of the side aisles are among the oldest examples of their kind. It also preserves an ancient altar and the remains of an eighth-century ciborium, a panel painting by Bagnacavallo, and frescoes from the first half of the fourteenth century attributed to Giuliano da Rimini or, by more recent criticism, to Francesco Pelosio. - See Plate XLIII.