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The church, or more properly the oratory, is said to have been built as a votive chapel by the people of Marcellano shortly after the plague of 1527, which the town traversed without the loss of a single inhabitant; a pair of surviving frescos of St. Sebastian and St. Rocco, protectors against plague, do bear out the story.
The spare interior; damp, rain and whitewash have done their work on the frescoes, but if money can be found it may be possible to restore and protect them. The best-visible fresco in this view is the Crucifixion with St. Anthony on the left; high up on the same wall, the medallions left and right, following a scheme commonly seen in Umbria, represent the Annunciation — angel to the left and Mary to the right — bracketing a faded Coronation of the Virgin. A votive fresco of Mother and Child rounds the bend on the right wall. |
Over the altar, an oil painting of the Virgin with St. Francis and St. Rocco, dating to 1948, replaces an old fresco on the same subject, already restored in 1841 but finally destroyed by the humidity. |
The name Santa Maria del Ponte, St. Mary's by the Bridge, will mystify the casual visitor, since there doesn't seem to be a bridge nearby: but there is one. The church sits in a hollow below the town, a small flat area traversed by a trickle of water which during the rainy season must swell into a full-blown creek, and the little access road crosses it. Above ground, nothing marks the crossing, but if you poke around near the underside of the road, you'll see a small arched brick structure — in sum, a bridge: now partly buried over the centuries, at one time, when the church was new, it was more visible and gave it its name. |
The detailed historical information on this page is taken from
Marcellano — Indagine su un castello medievale umbro
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Images with borders lead to more information.
The thicker the border, the more information. (Details here.) |
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Most of this page I owe to the detective work of others:
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Churches of Marcellano |
Churches of Gualdo Cattaneo |
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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. See my copyright page for details and contact information. |
Page updated: 29 Sep 07