Description
The church, built at an altitude of 802m above sea level, on the crest of Monte Sant'Angelo, is dedicated to the patron saint. The present appearance comes from a 19th century reconstruction, which was partly superimposed on an older building, dating from the 12th century and dedicated to Sancti Angelo in Castro. Traces of the medieval church in the rock, in fact, are still visible behind the Renaissance ossuary: the two buildings have the same longitudinal orientation, but they are not perfectly aligned.
Exterior
The facade is very simple, like a hut, with a gable roof and a cross at the top. It has a rectangular entrance with an architrave and two small windows along the left side.
Interior
The old building would have been rectangular, with a single nave and a semicircular apse carved into the rock, a raised presbytery with the entrance facing the tower of Castro di Valva, as cited in 1079, according to a typical pattern in the process of fortification.
The 19th-century building has kept the same floor plan but it now has a sequence of three arches that support the roof. Along the walls run a stone seat, interrupted only by the pillars of the arches. At the end, the main altar, which is slightly off-axis, is surmounted by a niche with the plaster statue of St. Michael the Archangel, from the 20th century. The original wooden statue from the 17th century is now kept in the sacristy of the church of Santa Maria della Neve .
