In enchanted places where nature and art tell the story of
the piety of the Saint of Norcia.
Church of Santa Scolastica - Norcia
The church of Santa Scolastica, cradle of the second Benedictine order, is
situated in the immediate vicinity of Norcia at the center of the plateau of
the same name.
The church commemorates the Saint, sister of Benedict, since
according to tradition, it was in that very spot that she gathered together
her first sisters and lived there until she moved to Cassino.
The pitched facade was rebuilt in the course of the 18th century and the
small windows placed either side of the portal indicate that the place was
much worshipped and the destination of streams of pilgrims, especially in
times of drought.
The interior is a single space with a rectangular plan and
wooden ceiling. On the right-hand wall and on the back wall, fragments of
fifteenth-century frescoes have recently been found, including the Madonna and Child with Saints Benedict and John the Baptist, ascribed to
the brothers Lorenzo and Jacopo Salimbeni and several scenes from the Life
of St. Benedict which were painted over an older pictorial decoration, to
which the St. Scholastica attributed to the Maestro della Madonna Strauss
also belongs. A monastery, of which some parts along the right-hand side of
the building remain, was built adjacent to the church.
Church of San Salvatore di Campi - Norcia
The church
of San Salvatore di Campi, an important parish in the Middle Ages, was
dependent on the abbey of S. Eutizio until 1493.
Built at the center of an area with a high density of hermits, it consists
of two structural parts, symmetrical but not coeval, of which the older,
left-hand section was the model for the right-hand part. It was the
prototype for the two-naved churches found in the Norcia area: in this case
the two naves bear witness to the co-existence in the church of two
liturgical rites, oriental and Latin. Internally, the two naves are
separated by pillars which support the cross-vaults.
On the back wall of the
left-hand nave, which is older and richer in frescoes, is a large frescoed Crucifixion and in the front part a large pointed arch supporting a
sort of through iconostasis wwhich is entirely frescoed; the upper
attic housed a large wooden Crucifix dating back to the 14th century and
much venerated.
Abbey of S. Eutizio - Preci
The Abbey of S. Eutizio in Preci stands on a high tuff crag, in the midst of
an area which more than any other shows important evidence of local
pre-Benedictine monasticism. In his Dialogues (late 6th century), St.
Gregory the Great wrote that near Norcia, in about 450 A.D., St. Spes had
established a small group of monks who led a hermit’s life, guided after his
death by S. Eutychius, Spes’ disciple and evangelizer of the region.
The monastery, later converted into an abbey, had
held the priorship of S. Benedetto in Norcia since its origin, but was not,
however, free from conflict or interference by the Holy See.
All the rooms
typical of a monastery can still be found inside the Abbey of S. Eutizio:
the church, the chapter-house and the refectory.
The abbey’s most flourishing period dates back to
around the year 1000, when, thanks to its well-stocked library and school of illuminated manuscripts, it became an important cultural
center.
One of the oldest texts written in the vernacular
originates from its library: the formula of confession dating back to 1095.
The library of S. Eutizio remained intact in loco until 1605 when Abbot
Giacomo Crescenzi donated part of it (around 35 illuminated codices) to his
friend St. Philip Neri, who transferred the material he had received to the
Vallicelliana Library in Rome.
Church of San Felice di Narco – Sant’Anatolia di Narco
The church of S. Felice di Narco was built in around 1190, on the ruins of
an old Benedictine edifice, constructed after the Benedictine monks had
reclaimed the surrounding marshland.
According to tradition, the terrible dragon which polluted the air of the
valley with its breath (allegory of the Nera river), was defeated by two
monks, Saint Mauro and his son Saint Felice. Reference to this legend is
made in the bas-relief below the rose window of the facade. The latter is
one of the most interesting examples of Romanesque architecture and
sculpture in Spoleto, with the beautiful reliefs which frame the rose window
and the Agnus Dei placed on top of the gable.
The single-naved interior has an interesting fresco depicting the Adoration of the Magi, and a presbytery raised over the crypt and
delimited by Cosmatesque plutei. The Diocesan Archive of Spoleto preserves
three valuable 12th-century parchment volumes, known as the Leggendari
del Duomo (Cathedral Legendaries). The 1st and 2nd volumes were written
in the scriptorium of the abbey of S. Felice di Narco, the 3rd comes from
the church of S. Brizio, near Spoleto.
Abbey of San Pietro in Valle - Ferentillo
The Abbey of S. Pietro in Valle at Ferentillo was founded in the 8th century
on the burial site of two monks whom tradition identifies as Lazzaro and
Giovanni; the latter led a hermit’s life, according to the model of St. Spes,
in the two grottoes adjacent to the church.
The abbey was built by order of the Longobard Duke of Spoleto, Faroaldo II,
who having renounced his civilian attire, became a monk and chose this place
to live as a recluse. He was buried here in 728.
The apses and transept of the original church remain, as does the marble
slab on the altar which comes from the ancient presbytery enclosure. The
upper part of the side walls in the nave is entirely decorated with a famous
fresco cycle of Romanesque age illustrating Stories of the Old and New
Testament , a token of one of the first Roman reactions to the hieratic
and unearthly style of Byzantine painting.
Besides the fragments of the Longobard sculptures which once decorated the
church, there are five Roman sarcophagi with a pagan subject and one
of Asiatic type.
Hermitage of Sant'Antimo - Spoleto
On the site of a modern hotel (now closed), once stood the hermitage of
Sant’Antimo; the presence of this sacred place is recalled by a tiny modern
chapel dedicated to the Saint and by the presence in the immediate vicinity
of a grotto which can be reached along a little path adjacent to the
chapel. Evidence can be found here of the first hermit settlements dug into
the rock, including small niches, storerooms and several crosses.
Church of San Giuliano - Spoleto
The church of S. Giuliano in Spoleto, according to tradition, was founded in
the 5th century on land donated by a matron named Gregoria to St. Isacco.
The monastery was already annexed to the church at the time of Pope Pelagius
I (mid-6th century), who mentions it in two of his letters. After several
years the complex became a Benedictine abbey and in it were buried the
hermit monks of Monteluco who most distinguished themselves in terms of
holiness, including the aforementioned Isacco.
The facade is embellished with an elegant window with three lights and a
portal constructed of salvaged material and reliefs of the early
Christian age.
The interior is divided into three aisles by arches on columns and
terminates in three apses, of which the central one was entirely frescoed
with the Coronation of the Virgin and Benedictine Saints by the
so-called Maestro di Eggi in 1442, on the commission of the Benedictine
abbot Argento Campello. Early mediaeval sculpture fragments are placed along
the aisles.
