Category: Attrazioni Montefalco

The Convent is located just over a kilometer from the village of Montefalco, perched on top of a hill: a mystical place rich in time in the Pieve di San Fortunato art and silence intertwine in a unique story.

San Fortunato is the patron saint of Montefalco, together with Santa Chiara della Croce, and the town is bound to his figure by a strong devotion. It is said that from the stick that Fortunato planted in the ground, a holm oak plant came to life. The plant believed to be St Fortunato's, now a very tall tree, can still be seen in the holm oak forest on the property.

All that remains today of the older church, built over his remains, are the four Roman columns, repurposed into the space of the four-sided courtyard in front of the church, rebuilt in the Renaissance period, and the numerous epigraphic and stone remains from the same period, some of which are preserved here and some in the nearby Museum of St Francis.

In the beautiful four-sided entrance porch to the church is the magnificent “Cappella delle “Rose”, created by Tiberio d'Assisi in 1512 and dedicated to the stories of the Perdono d’Assisi. The main scene behind the altar depicts St Francis' request to Madonna dell’indulgenza del Perdono per Assisi, the Indulgence of the Portiuncula. Exquisitely crafted, in the vault, the Blessing Almighty is surrounded by cherubim and seraphim.

The Friars Minor were the first to request in Montefalco the intervention of the famous Renaissance painter Benozzo Gozzoli's masterpiece, author of the beautiful cycle of frescoes in the nearby Church of San Francesco, now part of the museum. In fact, the 1450 fresco in the lunette above the entrance portal to the church, depicting the "Madonna col Bambino tra San Francesco e San Bernardino da Siena e sette Angeli ", is by his hand.

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Inside the church, on the left, there is an ancient restored chapel, with decorations by the late 15th-century Montefalco painter Francesco Melanzio, in which the sarcophagus of St. Severus, dating back to the 4th or 5th century, is preserved, with the paintings Ecce Homo and two very deteriorated Adoring Angels attributed to Benozzo Gozzoli.

It also houses a copy of the beautiful panel painting made in 1450 by Benozzo Gozzoli for the high altar of the church, according to the most up-to-date dictates of Renaissance taste, the "Madonna of the Cintola" altarpiece. The original panel is currently exhibited in the Vatican Museums, as it was donated by the Municipality of Montefalco to Pius IX in 1848 to obtain the title of "city".  It was recently restored thanks to the synergic intervention of local entrepreneurs, producers of excellences sensitive to the valorisation of the territory, the museum manager and the promoting public bodies who, together in integrating the contribution, made the work skilfully conducted at the Vatican Museums' laboratories possible.

In the woods adjacent to the monastery are the so-called “Grotte di S. Fortunato”, probably originally a pagan temple dedicated to the goddess Mithras, an underground oratory from the early Christian era, later used for the worship of Christianity. These caves were chosen several times by the Saint himself as a place of retreat. They are chambers excavated in a bank of breccia and clay, including the central one in the shape of a cross, probably used as an oratory.

The church is located along the city's main street and its structure is reminiscent of the simplicity typical of mendicant orders.

The Gothic-style façade is enriched by the slender ogival portal, with bundles of small columns and rich capitals and a highly original rose window. Another small side aisle was added to the single-nave structure, initially open to the street and used as a covered market, later closed. In 1466, on the other side, the convent cloister was built, which is of beautiful workmanship and today houses many initiatives for territorial promotion.

The vault of the nave has an exposed wooden truss roof and ends with a polygonal apse, where the altar, raised three steps, is located.

Inside, there are numerous traces of frescoes from the Umbrian and Tuscan schools, dating from the late 13th century to the 17th century. Of particular interest among these is the Coronation of the Virgin between Angels and Saints, a fresco attributable to the Sienese school. Important is the 15th-century frescoes of the Umbrian school.

It should be noted that the iconographic reference to St Chiara della Croce returns several times, such as to the right of the main door, below. Inside the church, the "mortal remains" of the Blessed Chiarella and Illuminata are preserved in a reliquary on the right aisle. Further along the same wall, again in a wooden reliquary, is the mummified body to which the Legend of the Blessed Pellegrino of Montefalco is linked. Legend has it that it is the body of a 14th-century pilgrim who reached Montefalco from Spain to venerate the body of Blessed Clare. When evening arrived, he asked the friars for hospitality and before going to rest he returned to the church, where in the morning, the sacristan sitting at the confessional found him, dead, in the same position in which we can still see him. He was buried but was found outside the tomb and the episode was repeated in the following days. So it was decided to place him in the bell tower, where he remained for a hundred years without the body decomposing. The Fathers then had him placed in the Sacristy, in a glass case in the same pose and with the same pilgrim's clothes he was wearing. 

The church dedicated to Santa Chiara della Croce is part of the convent structure of the Poor Clares in observance of the Augustinian rule.

The first construction of the new house at the old church of Santa Caterina began in 1281 at the behest of Beata Giovanna, sister of St. Chiara. It was here that Clare became Abbess in 1291, on the death of her sister, and in 1303, she rebuilt the foundations of the church that now bears her name and where it stands today. All that remains of the original construction today is the nuns' choir, the present chapel of Santa Croce and the garden, once a vegetable garden, enclosed between the Monastery and the Church.

The Sanctuary of St. Chiara of Montefalco was built in 1615 to a design by Perugian architect Valentino Martelli.

Inside the church, on the high altar is a rich 17th-century gilded ciborium.

In the right arm of the transept, at the back, on a 14th-century base is the silver and crystal urn where the body of St.Chiara of Montefalco rests intact, with the relics of her heart.

On the left of the church is the precious “Cappella della Croce”", originally the presbytery of the Church of the Santa Croce, it was built by the Saint between the end of the 13th and the beginning of the 14th century. It is a very evocative place, the one most associated with Clare in life and in death, and even beyond death because it is there that the numerous miracles recounted in the Processes for her Canonisation would take place. This sacred place is the one she chose for her death when on the morning of 17 August 1308, she asked to be carried there on a portable wooden bed. This is still the day dedicated to her veneration. In the frescoes decorating the Cappella della Croce, frescoed in 1333, the highlights of Chiara's life are depicted in various scenes. In the cross vault are depicted the symbols of the 4 Evangelists and framed by rich decorative friezes, in the centre of the chapel is the frescoed wall with an imposing Crucifixion, crowded with more than forty figures, with a host of horsemen crowning the cross.. per quanto vi fosse affezionata e la cui unica apertura è sul cielo, infatti, vi cresce un albero sconosciuto fino agli inizi dell’800 in Europa. In primavera si copre di fiori profumati, di un viola chiaro e sfumato, delicatissimo. Da questi fiori poi, a grappolo, maturano delle bacche. I loro semi sono i ben noti “acini” con cui si confezionano da secoli le caratteristiche corone del rosario.

It is the highest point of the city, the heart of civil and religious power. The 'platea rotunda', as it was called at the beginning of the 14th century due to its almost circular shape, became the centre of city life from the Middle Ages onwards and the point of convergence of the five main streets that divide the town into segments.

Standing out in the Piazza is the mighty Palazzo Comunale with its Bell Tower, formerly known as Palazzo del Popolo, with its round arches outlining the façade. Built in 1270 with very small dimensions, it was later enlarged on the entire left side during the 15th century, when the loggia with octagonal pillars, finished with capitals with large acanthus leaves, was added, above which is the large terrace that towers over the square. It is from here that each year, during the Renaissance re-enactment of the “Fuga del Bove”, the winner of the coveted Falco d’Oro is announced as the prize for the competitions held by the four historic quarters of Sant’Agostino, San Bartolomeo, San Fortunato e San Francesco Since 1972, the event has been revoking the Renaissance splendor of this municipality, inspired by the historical period between 1400 and 1500.

The Palazzo houses the Civic Library, with around 10,000 volumes (legal and scholastic works from the 16th century, incunabula and manuscripts) and the Municipal Historical Archive, with documents from the 15th to the 19th century. The splendid setting of the Piazza Rotonda also includes:the ex Oratorio of S. Filippo Neri (1705), transformed into the present Theatre in 1895 ,the small church of S. Maria di Piazza documented from the 13th century, with a fresco inside depicting a Madonna in Trono by Francesco Melanzio, in which he replicates the characteristic stylistic models of Renaissance figurative culture. Crowning the square are some of the fine noble palaces that characterise the village with their serene Renaissance balance: Palazzo Senili (16th century), Palazzo Santi-Gentili (16th century) and Palazzo de Cuppis (16th century).

The complesso museale di San Francesco is a true treasure chest of art, an essential reference point for knowledge of Umbrian painting, precious for its history, tradition and the works preserved there.

Once a convent with an adjoining church that belonged to the Franciscan order for centuries, since 1990 it has been home to the civic museum and offers its visitors the poetic realism of Renaissance art.

It comprises Chiesa di San Francesco, la Pinacoteca Civica, the former cellars of the friars, an archaeological section and exhibition spaces for contemporary exhibitions.

The Church of San Francesco Francesco is the heart of the museum complex thanks to its extraordinary decorative richness that bears, among others, the signatures of two excellent masters, Benozzo Gozzoli and Pietro Vannucci known as Perugino.

In the central apse, we find Benozzo Gozzoli's masterpiece, the cycle of frescoes with the Stories from the Life of Saint Francis, dated 1452, in which, with an abundance of detail, he recounts, in brilliant colours, the salient moments in the Saint's life. In one of the episodes, Benozzo depicts Saint Francis blessing the town of Montefalco: the rural background reflects the importance of vine cultivation for the town. Also in the apse of the church, he perhaps alluded to Sagrantino by painting the table set with red wine on the table of the knight from Celano.  Among the other works that adorn the walls of the church, the delicate beauty of the fresco on the counter façade with the beautiful Annunciazione con Eterno in gloria tra angeli e la Natività by Pietro Vannucci known as Perugino, dated 1503, is surprising.

   Civic Art Gallery  
 

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