Annarita Falsacappa, Giovanni Mariotti, Paolo Porzi –  BEVAGNA GEMMA DEL PIANO. Immagini insolite e storie inedite – Dimensione Grafica Editrice – 2013 – pp. 259-260

L'articolo Church and Monastery of Santa Maria del Monte proviene da Visit Bevagna.

L'articolo Church of Madonna della Rosa proviene da Visit Bevagna.

According to Candido Piatti, thy were founded by Benedictine monks from Sassovivo in the 11^th century (1078) on the ruins of one of the two fortresses of Bevagna or accprding to Camassei on the Ruins of an equipped sentinel Castel for town advanced defence at 231 m. The church, known as San Savino or Sant’Ansovino from Capro, and the convent were dependent on the Abbey of Santa Croce di Sassovivo and, in 1138 were placed under the protection of the Apostolic See by Pope Innocent II.

In 1223 the monastery was destroyed by Frederick II, as the main monuments of the city of Bevagna.

Alberti recalls a controversy between the bishop of Spoleto and the Abbey of Sassovivo concerning the relevance of the church, for which in 1255 an agreement was reached, confirmed by Alexander IV: the church and the parish get the dependence of the monastery of Sant’Apollinare of Sambro near Collemancio with the obligation to annually pay 100 coins to the cathedral of Spoleto. The place is then governed by a prior and the ancient monks of Sassovivo until 1439; abandoned by the Benedictines, in 1487 Cardinal Marco Barbo, Commendatory Abbot of Sassovivo, authorized the opening of the convent with the consent of Pope Innocent VIII, (the seal is kept in the archive of Santa Maria degli Angeli) after having granted the church and the gardens by the side to the Minor Observant Order of San Francesco in Bevagna. It took the name of Annunziata and transferred the care of souls to the church of San Michele Arcangelo.

Eight years later, at the entrance of the church the same monks install that wonderful portal, all sober and all Umbrian, expressing the signs of classical and renaissance continuity on the same date that recurs gently spaced along the architrave: M 495!

With the bequest of Bernabeo Pucciati from Bevagna and the intervention of the Municipality in 1495, as engraved on the portal, the church of Annunziata is restored and initially houses nine monks. It has the typical characteristics of the observant churches: the façade, simple in its architecture, is adorned with terracotta shelves and is preceded by a brick porch with six arches. For the earthquake of 1832 the whole vault fell and was rebuilt in plaster and camorcanna. The bell tower was built in 1706. On the outside of the church towards the east there was a chapel dedicated to Sant’Antonio Abate with two altars and in 1746 it was restored with a cost of two ecus and fifty coins but then ruined with the earthquake of 1832 and was no longer built again. The compass of the church door, the orchestra, the organ, the four confessionals, the balustrade were made in 1851-1853. On the outside of the convent the small windows of 1490 are visible, which were used by the monks. The interior of the church is small and has a single nave.

The Church, although not very large, is beautiful and adorned with seven altars, very proper. There are good paintings, among others that one of San Sebastiano by Camassei (…). But above all we must admire the magnificent and architecturally beautiful “greater altar of glazed terracotta”, which among elegant pillars and a rich trabeation presents a picture of about two meters high and a little less wide, in which the Annunciation is depicted in high relief.

The work, dating back to about the middle of the 16^th century, first wrongly attributed to master Giorgio Andreoli, Luca della Robbia, Giovanni della Robbia (or Luca il Giovane), is thought to be the work of the Florentine Santi Buglione (1494 -1576), which also worked on the decoration of the vault of a chapel of San Francesco from Assisi. In 1840 the terracotta was painted, covering its artistic value, which in August 1921 was restored, removing the colors superimposed with the particular potassium hydroxide washing.

As the Alberti says, in the church there are seven altars: the high altar, those dedicated to Sant’Antonio from Padova, San Pietro from Alcantera, San Sebastiano, San Tommaso, San Giuseppe and the stone altar, of a majestic shape, called the Crucifix for a sixteenth-century wooden crucifix attributable to Giovanni Tedesco, who worked for many convents looking between Perugia and the valley of Rieti.

Around the crucifix there is a fresco by Il Fantino dated to the end of 16^th or the first years of 17^th century, which represents the Madonna and San Giovanni and Francesco.

San Sebastiano is by Camassei as well. It was in the choir of the church and then it was brought to the Picrure Gallery of Bevagna in 1900.

Annarita Falsacappa, Giovanni Mariotti, Paolo Porzi – BEVAGNA GEMMA DEL PIANO. Immagini insolite e storie inedite – Dimensione Grafica Editrice – 2013 – pp. 203-214

L'articolo Church of Santissima Annunziata – Capro proviene da Visit Bevagna.

Mario Lolli

L'articolo Church of the Madonna della Pia proviene da Visit Bevagna.

Many people walked from Torre del Colle, even from Bevagna and Gualdo and it was also an opportunity to take a long walk with friends. 1^st May was a special day, cheered also by the marching band, while in front of the sanctuary kiosks of roast pork vendors alternated with stalls of toys for children, who used to play ball on the front porch of the church.

After the last works around the 70s, the sanctuary of Madonna della Valle has been in a state of abandonment for a long time because of the neglect of time and especially after the earthquake of 1997 that made it unfit because of the numerous cracks that affected the whole structure.

The current Municipal Administration has included the Sanctuary in a project that provides for its restructuring from 2019.

Safety works has already begun and there will be a redevelopment of the Sanctuary, built in the 1930s.

Padre Ignazio Gasparrini left us a booklet in which he tells the story of the sanctuary of Madonna della Valle from its foundation in 1212, as attested by a document he found in the Archive of the Municipality of Bevagna. After the Preach of San Francesco in the territory of Bevagna, Napoleone, son of Count Rainaldo, donated land for the construction of the church of Santa Maria, which for about three centuries is object of worship and then abandoned for unknown reasons.

Another document found by Gasparrini in the Municipal Archives of Bevagna, dated 1546, says that the sanctuary is resurrected again by Silvestro Perantoni from Bevagna (also known as Stracciato).

From a document of the Municipal Archive of Bevagna, always reported by Gasparrini and dated August 31, 1556, it appears that, after heated controversies, the patronate of the sanctuary is ceded by Antonio, son of Silvestro Perantoni, to the Municipality, which maintains it for many years.

There is no news for a long time, it is only known that in 1850 the chaplain, who officiates the sanctuary is Don Giovanni Bartoli. Once again abandoned, in 1880 a young man from Torre del Colle, te 14-year-old, Pierino Stortini, found this church covered by brambles while collecting wood in the woods with his father and decided to restore it, freeing it from the vegetation and fixing the roof. The word that the image of The Virgin is miraculous and that in the church sacred songs are heard quickly spread, so in a short time it is filled with people in prayer and pilgrims from nearby places. Still today the sanctuary of Madonna della Valle is a place of great devotion on the part of many faithful.

Annarita Falsacappa, Giovanni Mariotti, Paolo Porzi – BEVAGNA GEMMA DEL PIANO. Immagini insolite e storie inedite – Dimensione Grafica Editrice – 2013 – pp. 245-258.

L'articolo Sanctuary of Madonna della Valle proviene da Visit Bevagna.

Ancient stories handed down from generation to generation tell that like so many Umbrians a citizen of Bevagna named Pancascio went looking for work in the Roman countryside, and stayed there for some years where he was hit by a very serious disease. The thought of death made Pancascio invoke the help of The Virgin, to whom he vowed that, if he were healthy, he would erect in his honour a Majesty near his village.

Returning from the Roman countryside to his native town, Pancascio stopped on the top of a hill to rest just a mile from Bevagna, which was then called Colpulito. Tired of travel and illness, Pancascio woke up from sleep and noticed that he had recovered his health. So, full of faith and hope in Mary, he took some stones and made a stone wall, leaving it as a sign of his draw. In a few minutes he walked the rest of the way back to his relatives and friends, and told them all about the miracle he had received from Mary.

After a few days he returned to the hill of Colpulito and built two majesties on the wall he had left: the first one looking towards noon and the other one looking to the west. In the latter he made represent the Immaculate Virgin in the middle, on the sides San Pietro, San Cristoforo and Sant’Antonio Abbate. In the first one instead he ordered to paint the Madonna and Child in act to bless; on the sides San Giovanni Battista and San Luca, San Bernardino Da Siena, Santa Caterina and Santa Lucia virgins and martyrs, in the turn the Redeemer. In 1582, when the Sanctuary underwent modifications aimed at receiving the large influx of pilgrims who every day visited the Virgin Mary, the painting was cancelled, but the effigy of Our Lady was preserved and it is still visible today.

The prodigious healing of Pancascio had already spread not only in the neighbouring villages but also in the distant cities from which devoted people came to pray the new miraculous image of Mary. That sacred mountain became so devoted to Mary, that the same name was changed to it, and from the title of Colpulito, or Majesty of Pancascio, was called Colle or Madonna delle Grazie.

Many are the miracles that with the passing of time manifested to the pilgrims of that Majesty: Once the fame of miracles reached Spoleto, Bishop Pietro Orsini sent his Vicar and on September 7, 1582 he himself went to Bevagna. It was in this popular enthusiasm that the construction of the new church on Monte delle Grazie was decided. After the consent and the approval of the Bishop, the two consuls called the master architect Martelli Valentino from Perugia, and behind his drawing, on June 16, 1583 the construction of the temple started. Martelli conceived and raised to the Madonna delle Grazie a church in perfect Doric style with a Latin cross. The outer periphery of the church occupies a square area of 675 meters. The façade and the sides are decorated by sandstone Doric pillars, with finely shaped trabeation. The interior has three naves, with cross vault, dome and sanctuary. Six arches, with Doric pillars, divide the main nave from the side, and above these there are some housing rooms for custodians. The main altar is supported by four only-one-piece marble columns and was completed in 1641. It has the ancient Image made to paint from the miraculous Pancascio for picture. In the right arm of the cross vault there is the other painting made by Pancascio himself. In the left arm a large wooden Crucifix is venerated, which does not lack any artistic value. In the side naves there are four altars with columns and stucco friezes. The paintings on canvas have some artistic value and are attributed to Ascensidonio Spacca.

Candido Piatti, Il Santuario della Madonna delle Grazie, presso Bevagna, Tipografia Porziuncola di Santa Maria degli Angeli 1940-XVIII.

L'articolo Sanctuary of the Madonna delle Grazie proviene da Visit Bevagna.