VISSO

CHURCH OF THE COLLEGIATE OF SANTA MARIA

In the main square stands the Romanesque-gothic mass of the Collegiate of S. Maria, raised over an earlier small Pieve. The first church was built in 1143 with a double nave and a square-shaped bell tower, but being of insufficient space, was placed next to the present day church. This church was erected without an apse and preserved the earlier bell tower with double and triple lancet windows; it was consecrated in 1256. In later years the sacristy was added; in 1312 the polygonal apse was built and between 1324 and 1332, the church was enriched with a doorway in the lateral wall facing the square. In 1517 it was assigned the title of Collegiate. The wall facing the square is adorned with high arches and three trilobed single lancet windows and a particularly lovely entrance way. The entrance is a gothic arch with a cornice and eaves and deep splays, decorated by slender triangular corded columns that reach to the arch, having capitals sculpted with floral and animal motifs. On the sides there are two stone lions. In the upper section there is a lunette with a fresco from the 1400s. The interior has a single nave with a wooden ceiling from the 1700s. Other altars were later added to the single central altar, and were transformed into the baroque style in the 1600s. A basin for holy water from the 14th century is placed at the entrance. There are many frescoes and paintings adorning the church. On the walls of the apse there is a cycle of murals in the gothic-Riminese style from the 1300s. Along the left wall, after the door to the sacristy, is an interesting fresco of the Assumption from 1450 by Paolo da Visso, the so-called “Maestro della Valnerina” and founder of a local school of painting; on one of the 17th century altars there is a polychrome wooden statue of great value, representing “la Madonna Bruna”, a great example of Romanesque art of the 12th century. Along the same wall a large arch leads into the ancient Pieve, divided into two naves by octagonal pillars, and adorned with frescoes by the Umbrian-Marches school from the 14th century. The collegiate also preserves a niche with interesting Spanish paintings (1450-1528), remains of frescoes on the back wall by P. da Visso, and an enormous S. Cristoforo (over 6 m high) from the 1300s near the main door.

SANCTUARY OF MACERETO

Climbing up through the Passo delle Fornaci one reaches the high plain of Macereto, made famous by the Sanctuary of the same name, that was erected in 1529 over an earlier church dating back to 1359. This primitive chapel was built on the site where, according to tradition, a mule carrying a copy of the Madonna da Ancona to the Kingdom of Naples stopped, sank to its knees and refused to continue. In 1529 the work to erect the temple began on the initiative of the architect G. Battista da Lugano, who took up the project of Bramante in 1505. Work was suspended when Lugano died and was taken up again in 1553 under the guidance of Filippo Salvi da Bissone and finished in 1556. The magnificent Sanctuary, covered in travertine, has an octagonal plan with the external structures on three sides in correspondence to the three entrances to the church. The back has an irregular polygonal structure that was added at the end of the construction following the crumbling of the terrain and the collapse of the bell tower; this last was never raised again and its section, marked off by a cornice, was included in the polygon. Corinthian pillars against the walls support the decorated cornice; above this is an roof and incomplete cupola, built from an octagonal drum with four oculus on alternating sides and a lantern with a cross. The exterior is decorated by sculptures in the doorways and on the capitals. The main façade has a round window with a ridged cornice and a splayed doorway with bas reliefs. The right doorway is splayed with a triangular pediment and graduated columns; the left doorway has cylindrical columns and a triangular drum. The interior of the church is on the plan of a Greek cross with four wings, each ending in four apses with niches. Doric and Corinthian pillars support the aches that hold up the cupola and the cornice with ambulatory. The apse contains the high altar and stucco decorations and statues, and most notably, some artworks of Simone de Magistris from 1580-1582; the “Birth of Christ”, “The Worship of the Magi”, the “The descent of the Holy Spirit”, the “Circumscision”, la “Nativity of the Virgin Mary”, and the “Flight from Egypt”. Placed at the centre of the apse is the “The Resurrection” from 1598 by A. Righi. In the middle of the temple stands the ancient chapel that was covered in stone in 1585-1590. It has two doorways with classical elements and different decorative elements. The very plain interior has a gilded wooden altar from the 1500s.

CHURCH OF SANT'AGOSTINO

The ex-church of S. Agostino built in 1338 is on the left of the Collegiate. It has a tricuspid façade with a gothic ogive doorway and a triple order of columns, with a rose window up high in the centre. The central nave, apse, sacristy and a chapel were used for the exhibition space of the Civic Museum of the Diocese and the Museum of Leopardian Manuscripts. Some of the more notable sculptures of the Civic Museum are: a wooden statue of the Umbrian-Romanesque school from the 12th century and a wooden crucifix by an Umbrian artist from the 14th century. The museum also includes many paintings, such as a Romanesque-Byzantine panel from the 12th century of the Virgin Mary and Child, and several 15th century frescoes by P. da Visso. The panels and the frescoes are mostly from the area churches. The Museum of Leopardian manuscripts preserves some handwritten manuscripts of Giacomo Leopardi, including the celebrated idyll "L'infinito".

CHURCH AND CONVENT OF SAN FRANCESCO

The church was built at the end of the 1300s in the Romanesque-gothic style over the little church dedicated to S. Biagio, itself dating from 1216. A convent erected in 1291 is annexed to the church of S. Francesco . The convent was inhabited by Franciscans until the suppression under Napoleon, after which it was passed on to the nuns of the hospital of the SS. Trinità. After the flood of 1858 the church was raised 1.50 m. to bring it up to the ground level which had risen from the detritus deposited by the river. The church was also shortened by 10 m to permit the contruction of levees on the Nera, and the facade was dismantled and recomposed to its original state. It has a severe horizontal front of Abruzzese influence, ornamented by an elegant rose window, and made up of 12 corded columns and one smooth, and capitals with floral motifs. The interior has a single nave and a presbytery delimited by a large ogive triumphal arch. A Borromini-style wooden tabernacle from the 1600s is located in the high altar. Along the walls four baroque wooden altars stand out, exhibiting paintings on canvas from the 1600s in their centres.

CHURCH OF MADONNA DELLA CARDOSA

CHURCH OF SAN GIROLAMO E CONVENTO DEI FRATI CAPPUCCINI

The convent of the Capuchins stands out on a hill north of Visso not far from the center. It was built in 1550 over the chapel dedicated to S. Girolamo, and conceded together with the adjacent land and woods by the Community of Visso to the monks, as attested by an annotation of 1671. In 1575 the convent was the seat of the General Capital of the Capuchins, but it was suppressed in 1810. It was reopened from 1812 to 1870 and has undergone several restorations since 1893. The façade of the church is very plain and has a little portico, and on the right, the entrance to the convent. The interior is likewise very plain, with one nave and a wooden tabernacle on the high altar, carved at the end of the 17th century.

CHURCH OF SANT'ANTONIO

(Frazione Borgo S. Antonio) The parish church dedicated to S. Antonio was erected in 1349 and was for a long time the Lateran Capital. The facade has a portico that collapsed in 1858 from a violent flood. The entrance to the church under the portico is made up of an interesting white stone doorway constructed in 1513. It has two pillars ornamented with floral motifs and Corinthian and Ionic capitals; the architrave, topped by a triangular tympanum, has an inscription with the name of the Prior and the sponsors of the work. The interior is on a Latin cross plan and has a single nave; it was restored in 1952; in 1970 the roof was redone. The church preserves a baroque wooden altar from the 1600s. The niche has a sculpted wooden group of figures that was stolen. In the center of the apse wall there is a niche with a polychrome wooden Crucifix from the 16th century, by the school of the stone-cutters and wood-carvers of Visso.

CHURCH OF SANTA MARIA ANNUNZIATA

(Frazione Mevale) The Pieve di S. Maria, which stands amidst the houses of the frazione of Mevale, was built in 1100 in the Romanesque style, then later enlarged with gothic forms in 1282. The stone façade of the church was remade in the 1400s and was enriched with an original Renaissance doorway. It has two lions on the sides that support finely decorated pillars with sculpted capitals and several types of decorations and carvings. The arched lunette above the doorway has a sculpture of the Virgin Mary with Child from the end of the 1400s. A portico on the left of the church is where the community would gather, and has the remains of a fresco from the 1300s. The church has a square-shaped bell tower, that was reconstructed at the end of the 1800s. The Pievein the complex was restored in 1982-83. The interior has three naves with octagonal columns and a trussed ceiling. It preserves many frescoes on all the walls dating back to the 15th, 16th and 17th centuries. Of particular interest is the section to the right of the side entrance where a cycle of paintings in the Cortese gothic style dated 1492 (a date revealed by recent restoration) is visible. After an initial attribution to da Visso, it was concluded that the fresco was painted by the school of the Vissano painter, probably by his most illustrious pupil Tommaso di Pietro da Visso. He worked in the church with other colleagues from the workshop, who together painted the frescoes in the central nave that were discovered and restored in the 1980s. The paintings in the apse, including a “Dormitio Virginis”, are instead the work of Giovan Battista da Norcia, painted in the 1500s. Near the sacristy a stone ogive doorway leads into the chapel while an iron gate leads into the chapel built in 1478 to hold the Romanesque-Byzantine panel of the Madonna del Monte from the 1200s, now in the Museum of Visso. Other frescoes by Camillo, Fabio e Gaspare Angelucci, from the mevalese school and dating back to the 1500s and 1600s line the walls.

CHURCH OF SANTA MARIA ASSUNTA

(Frazione Fematre) An ancient pievethat is raised in front of the village of Fematre. It was erected in 1100 in a Romanesque style and in 1135 an oratory was added that today is used as the sacristy. The façade was redone in the 1400s, and in the same period the gabled bell tower was demolished to make a watchtower with arches for the bells; the church was also lengthened with the addition of the present day presbytery, and an arcade on the right. In front of the façade there is a characteristic original propylaeum that preserves the ancient door to the church with a double arched lintel and a lunette closed by a stone slab; above this there are two small windows, one cross-shaped and the other circular. On the left two stone doorways lead to the oratory; at the centre of the large arcade there is a secondary entrance to the church with a stone Romanesque doorway and remains of frescoes. The interior has a single vaulted nave separated by three couplets of columns, the last of which continues into a triumphal arch that divides the presbytery from the old apse. On the wall to the right of the entrance are frescoes by the Sparapane di Norcia, the sons of Tommaso di Pietro da Visso, dating back to 1518, and others by the same artists from 1553. The ribbed cross vaulted apse with a delicate trilobed single lancet window is amply frescoed by the Sparapane as well: these paintings were completed prior to those in the nave, and in fact date back to the first period of the Sparapane (1497). The church also contains the remnants of other frescoes by the same artists in the small chapel from 1506 that is located at the beginning of the arcade. On the inside there are wall murals by the Angelucci from 1583.

CHURCH OF SANTA MARIA DELLE GRAZIE

(Frazione Croce) In the Romanesque style of the 13th century, it has a facade enriched with a stone gothic entry way. In the plain interior there is a single nave with a fresco of the Madonna del Rosario and Saints, that could attributed to Simone de Magistris. The church preserves two faded wall murals by the Sparapane and a wooden altar from the 1600s.

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