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S. Giovanni del Pantano: The Church

[A two-story stone church with a three-story square belfry, at the foot of a low hill, next to a group of three cypresses and a pine tree. It is the church of S. Giovanni del Pantano, Umbria (central Italy).]

I've walked by this church on my two passes thru the village, but have not been inside, and can tell you not much more than anyone else could looking at these same photos. Dedicated to St. John the Baptist, it was founded in the 13c as a dependency of the abbey of S. Salvatore of Montecorona; although what you see here must surely date no farther back than the 16c if that. Se sei della zona e/o hai delle informazioni più ampie, sarò lietissimo di sentirti!

[The upper part of a small painted wooden door in a wall of irregular mortared masonry; the lintel is of sandstone and bears an inscription transcribed on this webpage. It is a detail of the exterior of the church of S. Giovanni del Pantano, Umbria (central Italy).]

Over the door next to the front of the school bus (which eventually left: photo) this inscription is still partly opaque to me.

DOM ×× 17+94 Fra

Deo Optimo Maximo ×× 1794 Fra

To God the Best and Greatest (in the year) 1794 Fra (?)

If you think you might have better luck with it, you may want to look at it closer up.

This inscription, seen in our lead-off photo at the base of the belfry around the corner from the door, although slightly earlier, is much easier to read:

Deo Optimo Maximo

D Antonio Finio Ivris Vtrivsqve Doctor hvivs ecclesiae parocho
viro claro et integerrimo
cvivs erga hoc sacerdotivm mvnificentiam
templvm concameratvm
aedes restitutae ager consitvs
satis demonstrant obiit septvagenario
maior anno ab Incarnatione MDCCXXXVII
idibvs Ianuarii
Iohannes Baptista Paganelli rector Castilionis Vgolini
ne avvncvli beneficentissimi
pietas sepvlcralis carere memoria
hoc volvit gestare monvmentvm.

To God the Best and Greatest

To Father Antonio Fini, doctor of canon and civil law, pastor of this church, a distinguished and most virtuous man, to whose generosity to this ministry the new church roof, the restored altars, the planted fields amply attest; who died at more than seventy years of age on the 15th of January 1737: Giovanni Battista Paganelli, rector of Castiglione Ugolino, that piety to the remains of his most liberal uncle might not be lacking to his memory, wished to erect this monument.

[MissingALT. It is a madonnina, or wayside shrine depicting the Virgin Mary, in S. Giovanni del Pantano, Umbria (central Italy).]

Not part of the church, but not 100 m distant, this madonnina greets the traveler approaching the town from the east.

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The thicker the border, the more information. (Details here.)

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