In the indeterminate locality of the villa were found some Roman burial tombs and an inscribed Roman tombstone (1). The "chapel" and the "curtis Maxenciatica" are mentioned in 839 (2). The Monastery of St. Prospero in Reggio owned several properties since the eleventh century (3). Massenzatico is named among the places where the Bishop of Reggio held a garrison and in 1052 c. there exists a "castrum" (4). In 1315 it is an autonomous municipality but the Bishop who held a fortified tower kept the domain even after the investiture of the other castles made in Feltrino Gonzaga in 1361. As early as 1329 the City of Reggio had however ordered the restoration of fortifications (5). In 1458 the locality included 58 "fires" and at the end of the eighteenth century it had 1051 inhabitants (6). During the Republican period it was united to Correggio. The autonomy resumed from 1801 to 1805 and was then finally aggregated to the City Council (7). The Church dedicated to St. Donnino, as we have seen, already existed in the ninth century, and was united in 1465 by Pope Paul II to the Bishop’s Table of Reggio (8).
The church was rebuilt in 1615 by Bishop Rangone reducing it to a single nave, tasselled, with three altars. In the first decades of the eighteenth century it was transformed to the present. On that occasion it was enlarged, raised and put on its face; the bell tower was also demolished and rebuilt (9). In 1866 it was decorated by the artist Geremia Manzini (10). The building is oriented liturgically. It has a beautiful mixed facade. The entrance portal is double light of which one is buffered.
The middle part of the façade is marked by two pairs of pilasters; in the center there is a niche with the statue of the Saint surrounded by an elegant frame. The upper crown of the facade is tripartite with a vertex with arched splendor. The bell tower, far from the church, is cuspidated and concluded with a single-light cell. It is still visible the ancient Bishop’s Palace restored in the eighteenth century. On the ground floor there is a monumental marble fireplace in Verona that recalls Bishop Andreasi with the inscription: "GE-AN-EPG-REG-ET-PRINC. -POSUIT-1548" (11).
Almost in front of the church, beyond the road there are two rural complexes of particular interest "to juxtaposed elements. One: it shows a porch, facing the house, with two architraved lights, the other: it develops a large rectangular plan with a four-pitched roof with undifferentiated ridge and firebreak. The rustic, west has a porch with six round lights, partly buffered.