San Leonardo church in Frigido

The Church, in Romanesque style, had in the medieval age one hospital for wayfarers annexed, which was run by monks. The medieval settlement rested on a Roman one "Ad Tabernas Frigidas" which is mentioned in the Tabula Peutingeriana. It was a place where it was possible to stop and to rest, with lodgings, stores, food-stuffs for the troops passing along the Aemilia Scauri road towards Luni.
Later the site was known as "Burgo Frigidi" and the now disappeared hospital inherited the function of traveller's refuge by the precedent age.
During the restoration of the church, superintended by the Soprintendenza ai Monumenti di Pisa ( a local institution) in the years 1953 - 1954, three layouts laid one upon the other were brought to light: they were rests of walls filled with earth and marble remains showing Latin epigraphic characters.
The sacred building has only one room, a rectangular choir resting on a semicircular structure which probably was the base of an older apse. The south side, as high as 40 centimetres from the ground, consists of unrefined horizontal stones; from there to the roof there is a heap of irregular stones, proving the many remaking. In the south-east side is a mullioned window (a window with two lights) with marble pointed arches.
The north side shows original features of the façade, apart from two windows with one light in the choir (1.70 m). We can remark particular herring-bone lines of stones in the side next to the façade. The gateway was adorned with a 13th century portal of the artist Biduino representing Jesus' entry in Jerusalem. This work is now conserved in the Metropolitan museum of N. Y.
Originally the church had three entrances: the main one in the façade, and the other in the north and south walls. The last one connected the inner courtyard of the hospital to the presbytery.
Towards the 17th century the base of the church and the church-square were raised to defend them from the river floods. From 1880 to its restoration in 1954, the building was neglected.

Massa buildings

Maps of the Massa