Almenno San Bartolomeo - San Tomè

It is sure, that a church existed here, before the Rotonda was erected in the early 12th century. This older, probably ruined building could have been originated in Lombard or Frankish times.

A little fee opened the locked door (and switched on the lights).

The structure consists out of three cylindrical volumes put one above the other. The upper matronaeum, where the nuns once gathered, has eight columns, just like the ground floor.

Here is one of the capitals, that just like the carvings of the exterior, was part of the preceding church. These are no mermen. A lion (?) has the feet of the unfortunate gentlemen already between the jaws.