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Wayside Shrine
Palazzo Rosa di Monte­corona

In the first few days of my three months in Umbertide, I started, like most of us I imagine with a new home base, by getting acquainted with my immediate neighborhood. So in early March 2004, one of my first explorations was the four kilometers or so from my quarters to the abbey of S. Salvatore di Montecorona. As often, I hadn't done my homework, so I was quite unaware of anything to see on the way, but of course we do keep our eyes open, and so — I stumbled on this, not far from the abbey, in an area known as Palazzo Rosa.

Anything carefully propped up like this must be worth looking at, and so it was. We're looking at one of the oldest wayside shrines in Umbria, with its stone plaque dated 1480:

Whether water damage or earthquake, the most likely causes of the little building's structural weakness, or maybe even a stray car — the edicola stands right by the road, as they almost always do of course — my photos record a work of piety and art in need of preservation. If we wish to carp at things, the painting in the niche is not the most success­ful, especially in the awkward positioning of the Baby Jesus, but very few of us, myself included, could do as well:

Happily, the edicola has since been restored and was officially reinaugurated on Sept. 27, 2015, as part of Monte­corona's annual festival. The structural damage has been repaired, new stucco has been applied, but most of all, the fresco is now protected from the elements by a heavy glass shield. The loss of immediacy is not an improvement by my lights, but it was either that — or move it to a museum, wrenching the shrine out of its context and divorcing it from the devotion of the faithful: but that has been avoided. A small space in front of the shrine has been enclosed in a low brick wall topped with a pleasant shoulder-high metal railing and a few potted plants: one or two people can stand in this open-air narthex, and the shrine still serves her original purpose.

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		WAYSIDE SHRINES:		Edicole of Umbria	Edicole of Italy
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