Among the most ancient sacred sites in the village of Piegaro is the Chiesa di San Silvestro Papa, a building presumed to date back to the period before the year 1000, but whose exact date of construction is not known. It is built on one of the highest points of the hill and has undergone numerous renovations, which, however, have not excessively altered its original appearance.
Indeed, the church still has its original layout, consisting of a rectangular Latin-cross plan with a single nave and a semi-circular apse. The original trussed ceiling was instead replaced by a vault, the altars were reduced in number from 7 to 5, but the internal structure was embellished with 14 columns with Corinthian capitals, which gave it a neoclassical style in the mid-19th century.
The first written records attesting to the existence of the parish date back to 1275.
Currently the church houses some significant 16th century works, such as the ‘Vergine con il Bambino tra San Sebastiano e San Rocco’, the ‘Vergine con il Bambino, San Francesco, San Sebastiano e Santa Margherita da Cortona’, and ‘S. Tommaso tra S. Pietro, S. Paolo, S. Cecili’ along with another saint whom the experts have not been able to identify. In the apse there is a beautiful painting depicting ‘l’imperatore Costantino in ginocchio davanti a Papa Silvestro’ (the emperor Constantine kneeling before Pope Sylvester), while in the rest of the church there are other depictions of the evangelists St. Mark, St. Matthew, St. John and St. Luke, images of Blessed St Paul, of ‘Sant’Antonio da Padova e Sant’Antonio abate’ and of the ‘Madonna del Buon Consiglio’. There is also a ‘Cristo ligneo’ (wooden Christ), which has been widely revered by the local community over the centuries.