Tradition recounts that a first church dedicated to St. Sophia was erected during the era of Charlemagne and the Lombards, on the site of a previous pagan temple. The surrounding borgo also took the name Santa Sofia. The current church was built between 1106 and 1127, thanks to the award of the tithes from the borgo, by Bishop Sinibaldo. The groin-vaulted roof and the Romanic-Gothic bell tower date to the 14th century. The church does not show any overall decoration scheme but there are individual frescos dating to the 13th-14th centuries. One of these depicts a Madonna with Child, of the Eleousa type, showing the sentiment of loving affection. The painting shows a style similar to that of the unknown individual who illuminated Giovanni da Galibana's personal copy of the Epistles, in 1259. The arch over the apse was bricked in during the early 1300s, thus permitting a lunette-shaped fresco of Madonna with Child, Two Saints and Donors, which is attributed to an anonymous Paduan artist active between 1325 and 1330, who had gained experience from the 'Master of the Coro Scrovegni', and was also influenced by the language of Pietro and Giuliano da Rimini. The third pilaster on the right retains a fragment of a larger composition depicting the Madonna and Child in affectionate conversation. This work is by a master knowledgeable of 1370s styles of Venice and informed in the mature techniques of Guariento. The form of the fresco reflects later changes in the pilaster made for the construction of the vaulted ceiling, at the end of the 1300s. The Tabernacle of the Holy Sacraments with Two Franciscan Saints can be dated to the beginning of the 1400s and is linked to the styles of Jacopo and Pierpaolo delle Masegne workshop and The Virgin with Body of Christ, by Egidio da Wiener Neustadt, is dated to 1430. !t was commissioned by the wealthy baker, Bartolomeo di Gregorio, who also commissioned the main altar base, by Andrea Mantegna, now lost.
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