San Silvestro is a Romanesque-style deconsecrated

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

church located on Via Matteotti in the historic center of the town of

Orte Orte is a town, ''comune'', former Catholic bishopric and Latin titular see in the province of Viterbo, in the central Italian region of Lazio, located about north of Rome and about east of Viterbo. Geography Orte is situated in the Tiber V ...

in the

province of Viterbo The province of Viterbo () is a Provinces of Italy, province in the Lazio region of Italy. Its capital is the city of Viterbo. Geography Viterbo is the most northerly of the provinces of Lazio. It is bordered to the south by the Metropolitan Cit ...

, region of

Lazio Lazio ( , ; ) or Latium ( , ; from Latium, the original Latin name, ) is one of the 20 Regions of Italy, administrative regions of Italy. Situated in the Central Italy, central peninsular section of the country, it has 5,714,882 inhabitants an ...

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

History

The church was founded in the 12th century, putatively with a facade defined in 1195 by Binellius. Separate from the nave, in a small garden is the square campanile, with mullioned windows. The interior of the church had been embellished over the centuries, but a 19th-century reconstruction led to the more spare interior seen today. In 1967, the church was converted into the ''Museo Diocesano e d'Arte Sacra'' (Diocese Museum of Sacred Art). Along with other panels and altarpieces from religious institutions, it displays an 8th-century

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived the events that caused the fall of the Western Roman E ...

mosaic of the

Madonna Madonna Louise Ciccone ( ; born August 16, 1958) is an American singer, songwriter, record producer, and actress. Referred to as the "Queen of Pop", she has been recognized for her continual reinvention and versatility in music production, ...

derived from the Oratory of

Pope John VII Pope John VII (; c. 650 – 18 October 707) was the bishop of Rome from 1 March 705 to his death on 18 October 707. He was an ethnic Greek, one of the Byzantine popes, but had better relations with the Lombards, who ruled much of Italy, than wi ...

in Rome.Vista Orte website
A column rescued from the refurbishment of the cathedral was erected in the piazza in front of the church.

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Silvestro Orte Churches in Orte Romanesque architecture in Lazio 13th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in Italy