[image ALT: Much of my site will be useless to you if you've got the images turned off!]

Shrine of the Madonna at La Bruna

[image ALT: A small fortress-like building, set in a landscaped area with a row of trees along a drainage canal, with a footprint no larger than that of an average house, yet disproportionately tall, about 10 meters in height, with an additional small cylindrical lantern above that. It is in the shape of a trefoil, its only windows small arched openings near the very top. It is a rear view of the Santuario della Madonna at La Bruna di Castelritaldi, Umbria (central Italy).]

[image ALT: A medium-sized monumental door, about 4 meters in height, arched then framed between tall narrow Corinthian pilasters, and the whole surmounted by a plain voided triangular pediment. It is the entrance door to the Santuario della Madonna at La Bruna di Castelritaldi, Umbria (central Italy).]

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.

[image ALT: A small fortress-like building with a footprint no larger than that of an average house, yet disproportionately tall, about 10 meters in height, with an additional small cylindrical lantern above that. From this angle it appears as a vertically rectangular block with a rounded swelling in the background, its only windows small arched openings near the very top. The façade has a pedimented Renaissance door, above it a small circular window, and is surmounted by a two-light belfry of the type known as a 'campanile a vela'. It is a three-quarters frontal view of the Santuario della Madonna at La Bruna di Castelritaldi, Umbria (central Italy).]

Images with borders lead to more information.
The thicker the border, the more information. (Details here.)

CHURCHES:

Churches of
Castelritaldi

Churches
of Umbria

Churches
of Italy

UP TO:

Castelritaldi

Umbria

Italy

Home

A page or image on this site is in the public domain ONLY if its URL has a total of one *asterisk. If the URL has two **asterisks, the item is copyright someone else, and used by permission or fair use. If the URL has none the item is © Bill Thayer.