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In the
Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...
, a pieve (, ; la, plebe, link=no; plural ''pievi'') was a rural church with a
baptistery In Christian architecture the baptistery or baptistry (Old French ''baptisterie''; Latin ''baptisterium''; Greek , 'bathing-place, baptistery', from , baptízein, 'to baptize') is the separate centrally planned structure surrounding the baptismal ...
, upon which other churches without baptisteries depended. The
Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...
word ''pieve'' is descended from
Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
''
plebs In ancient Rome, the plebeians (also called plebs) were the general body of free Roman citizenship, Roman citizens who were not Patrician (ancient Rome), patricians, as determined by the capite censi, census, or in other words "commoners". Both ...
'' which, after the expansion of Christianity in Italy, was applied to the community of baptized people. Many ''pievi'' began to appear in the 5th century, as Christianity expanded in the rural areas outside the main cities. In the 9th-10th centuries, they were often designed with
bell tower A bell tower is a tower that contains one or more bells, or that is designed to hold bells even if it has none. Such a tower commonly serves as part of a Christian church, and will contain church bells, but there are also many secular bell tower ...
s.


See also

*
List of pievi {{short description, None A pieve is an Italian and Corsican term signifying a medieval ecclesiastical/administrative territory and, by extension, the mother church of the territory. It has thus become a common component of place names and of the n ...
Church architecture Architecture in Italy Catholic Church in Italy {{Church-architecture-stub