Itinerary outside the walls

Photogallery

Itinerary outside the walls

outside the walls, along roads that wind through nature and spirituality one finds as many sites worthy of a stop, rich in history, art and culture

Church of San Fortunato

On the road to Spoleto in the direction of Trevi stands the Church and Monastery of San Fortunato, of artistic interest for its frescoes by Benozzo Gozzoli and Tiberio d'Assisi. A large fifteenth-century four-sided portico precedes the various religious buildings. To the left, the chapel delle Rose was added in the fifteenth century, entirely frescoed in 1512 by Tiberio d'Assisi with episodes from the life of Perdono d'Assisi, a few Franciscan saints, the Blessed Christ on the vault and a Pietà on the altar frontal. The door to the church is topped by a frescoed lunette depicting the Madonna and Child with Saints Francis and Bernardino da Siena, by Benozzo Gozzoli. Inside, a single nave and on the right wall an interesting fragment of a work by Benozzo Gozzoli, representing the Madonna and Child enthroned and an musician angel holding a fragmentary inscription with the artist’s signature. It should also be noted that until the mid-nineteenth century there was a beautiful panel on the high altar representing the Madonna giving her girdle to Saint Thomas and, in the predella, episodes from the lives of the Virgin and various Saints. The panel is now kept in the picture gallery of the Vatican Museums. In the forest adjacent to the monastery are the so-called Caves of San Fortunato, carved out of a bank of clay, perhaps originally dedicated to a Mithraic cult, then converted to Christian use.

Church of Santa Maria di Turrita

Three kilometres along the provincial road for Spoleto, one comes to a road for Turrita, The Church is a twelfth-century building originally annexed to a Benedictine monastery suppressed in 1295. Remaining from the monastic period, the construction with a Romanesque portal on the left side with two heads depicting the emperor and the pope and the Mystic Lamb in the lunette. In the lunette of the main portal we find Christ Risen on the sepulchre of Francesco Melanzio of 1515. Inside there are important devotional paintings. The oldest are on the wall of the presbytery, dating to the mid-fourteenth century. Of special interest is the representation of a Madonna del Soccorso with the date 1537.

Sanctuary of the Madonna della Stella

About five kilometres along the provincial road for Spoleto one finds the Sanctuary of the Madonna della Stella. The origins of the sanctuary lie in an image of the Madonna, painted in 1525 by Paolo Bontulli da Panecanestro in a small church dedicated to San Bartolomeo which collapsed shortly after 1815. Among the ruins of the church, the Virgin showed herself in 1862 to a farmer named Righetto Cionchi. The current Sanctuary, which welcomes countless crowds of the faithful, was built between 1862 and 1869 on designs by the Perugian architect Giovanni Santini. The elegant, neo-Renaissance interior preserves what remains of the old church (a fresco of the Madonna and Child), and the side altars are decorated with beautiful canvases by Overbeck, Mancinelli, Sereni and Pollastrini.

Church of Santa Elisabetta di Vecciano

About one kilometre from the historic centre of Montefalco, take the municipal road for San Clemente, then for Vecciano. The small church of Santa Elisabetta was built in the seventeenth century to protect an aedicule with a splendid fresco by Francesco Melanzio painted early in his career. It represents the Madonna and Child between two musician angels, with Saints Peter, Francis, John the Baptist and Sebastian in the soffit. In the nineteenth century the church was still officiated by Conventual Friars. Near the church is the so-called spring of Saint Francis, which the saint is said to have caused to flow by miracle, according to tradition in 1215.

Church of San Rocco

Around two kilometres from the historic centre, take the municipal road for Camiano. The church stands on Montefalco's first Franciscan settlement which dates to 1240 and which is where the Third Order Regular of Saint Francis was first recognised, holding its first General Chapter in 1448. Inside it conserves the remains of the apse decoration, a Crucifixion, attributed to the Foligno painter Giovanni di Corraduccio, and a panel painted by Francesco Melanzio depicting Saint Roch.

The Fabbri Fortress

From high on a small hill, it overlooks the plain below dominated by grape cultivation, and is located halfway between Trevi and Montefalco. Built in the fourteenth century, it was part of the Albornoz defense system. At the end of the fourteenth century it fell under the domain of Trinci. At the time it was called Bastida Fabrorum with a castellan at its head and a monthly appanage of five gold florins. After the death of Corrado XV(III) Trinci, it fell under the domain of Trevi. Picolpasso described the castle: "It has excellent high walls, all new: it is located on the plain and borders Spoleto. It stores every kind of product a plenty. The inhabitants are farmers. Together with the environs it counts 50 dwellings. Inside, there is only the guardian. It has water in its canals."

Fabbri later belonged to Cannaiola until 1820, when it passed to Montefalco. It has the shape of a skewed rectangle and high, crenelated walls, square bastions, a moat and a drawbridge. The twenty metre keep is intact, built in 1395 by Gregorio da Cerreto, who also built the Matigge Tower. The tower is perfectly aligned with those of Matigge, Montefalco and Morcicchia and according to legend they were connected by an underground tunnel.