Chiesa di Santa Croce

The little church of Santa Croce is located along the road between the center of Monteforte and the locality of Sarmazza, which coincides with a stretch of the Postumia road.

Of ancient construction, it preserves some frescoes from the early 1300s. The facade has a gabled shape with a round window above the entrance door, framed by a beautiful stone portal, and bears the date "1635", although the church is mentioned in some documents as far back as 1581.

On the back wall, next to the altar, there are 17th-century frescoes depicting Saint Teresa and Saint Augustine.

At the beginning of the 18th century, the church underwent significant modifications: the report from the pastoral visit of 1707 states that with the donations from the faithful, the side altar dedicated to Our Lady of Sorrows was rebuilt in marble, on which there was a small stone statue. According to tradition, this statue was found in the nearby fields: a farmer, while plowing, had unearthed it from the ground, and his oxen, upon seeing it, stopped and knelt down, refusing to go on.

The building suffered damage during a bombing in World War II, so much so that the current wooden beams date back to the post-war reconstruction, while the restoration of the interior paintings in the church dates back to 2002.

The gabled facade, facing west, features an entrance portal topped by a broken semicircular tympanum of Renaissance style, flanked by two rectangular windows. In line with the portal, there is an oculus.

The interior has a single rectangular nave, with a wooden beam ceiling and a terracotta floor. Rectangular windows are located on the southern side of the building, both in the main hall and in the presbytery.

On the walls, there are 14th and 17th-century frescoes, and on the northern wall, there is the marble altar dedicated to Our Lady of Sorrows.

The presbytery, introduced by a semicircular triumphal arch that bears the year 1635, elevated by one step and smaller in width than the nave, features a barrel-vaulted ceiling.

The church possesses a bell tower on the northern side of the building, on the roof slope.