Shrine of the Madonna at La Bruna

By Umbrian standards, the Santuario della Madonna on the banks of the Tatarena at La Bruna, built in 1510 in response to a miraculous apparition of the Virgin in this spot, seems like a Renaissance experiment. The plan is more or less Byzantine: a trefoil with a door, not that very far from a Greek cross; and if the lines are pure, the building pays for it by being pretty much windowless. A few standard elements for the period — the characteristic elegant pedimented door with pilasters and good composite capitals, the cupola (awkwardly tall from one side, not tall enough from the front), and the obligatory belfry in more or less the same style as always in Umbria, but that doesn't match the rest very well — and we have a curious brick building, best seen from a distance, that may be labeled as "Bramantesque".

On my sole pass so far thru La Bruna, I found the church closed, so it is only from hearsay that I can tell you about the painting of the miraculous Madonna by Tiberio di Diotallevi over the main altar and the frescoes in the choir, "attributed to Pier Matteo Piergili" according to the TCI Guide to Umbria.