The chapell of Santa Maria in Pensulis in Castelforte was part of a monument and the name "in Pensulis" (hanging) leads to two interpretations: a raised or existing building.
The chapel has parts that recall different styles in fact, it was built in the thirteenth century on the ruins of a Roman villa.
It is assumed that it was the Zetor villa, the Roman patrician who hosted the philosopher Plotinus, as evidenced by the sarcophagi of the I and II century AD found in the surrounding countryside.
Below the level of the church five parallel corridors are visible with barrel vaults that served as warehouses.
On a rung of the ladder that leads to the mezzanine floor of the chapel is carved the octagonal cross of the Knights of Malta.
Follow us