Church of Saint Francis in Trevi

Comune di Trevi

A church dedicated to the Virgin existed already in 1258. An ogival door with the epigraph was then built, reproduced on the cyma of the gable of the west wall, of which the original is conserved in the rooms of the Museum Complex of Saint Francis dedicated to the City and the Territories of Trevi.

The inscription, referring to the building of the door and discovered during the works of restoration of the premises destined to be part of the museum, frames a sculpted pluteus in bas-relief decorated by a central cross and floral motifs, and it states:

MAG(iste)R ANGELO FECIT HOC OP(us) AN(n)O D(omi)NI MCCLXVII M(en)SE MAII. AVE MARIA GRA(tia plena) DOMIN(us) TECU(m) B(e)N(e)D(i)CTA TU.

At the sides of the gable the emblematic figures of the Emperor and the Pope protrude from the cyma, sculpted in stone, of which the originals are also shown in the same section of the museum.

They are most likely the figures of Charles of Anjou who killed Frederick II of Swabia thus ending the Swabian domination in southern Italy, and Clement IV who financed the intervention of Charles of Anjou and gave him possession of the Sicily and the Neapolitan territories.

The oldest building of which remains survive, is the Romanesque church of Santa Maria. Of this building remains part of the façade, now part of the church wall facing west (or the back wall of the present church), covered by the wing designed by Valadier during the 19^th century renovation of the convent structure. Of the original façade, remains include the mural curtain in blocks of local limestone, the doorway (which now corresponds to the entrance that leads to the large room dedicated to the Museum of the Civilization of the Olive) and the trace of the rose-window, now filled-in, that was successively moved higher up to its present position.

 The rose-window with rayed columns was originally surrounded by three smaller windows, now also covered. The façade is easily observed along all it’s height following the stairway that leads from the ground floor of the museum to other floors.

The works enlarging the church date back to 1291. In the same year, on the 7^th of march, Pope Nicholas IV granted indulgences to those who visited the church in occasion of festivities dedicated to the Madonna, Saint Francis of Assisi, Saint Anthony of Padua and in the anniversary of the dedication; the pope specified: “In cuius honorem eadem ecclesia dicitur esse conctructa” .

Between the end of the 13^th century and the beginning of the 14^th began the building of the new church.

In 1310 the blessed soul Ventura was buried there with solemn honours. He lived many years in a monastery in Pissignano, and his famous holiness became object of such veneration among the people that the original dedication to the Virgin Mary was changed to that of the blessed  hermit.

In 1354 works began for the second enlargement. The Commune ordered  all peasants to bring a load of wood to make the limestone for the building of the church of the blessed soul Ventura “quae noviter aedificatur”, and in 1358 forced all the inhabitants of the Matigge area who owned animals for transport “actas ad salman portandam”, to bring a load of stones each, within ten days, to be mined in the quarry of Colle di Paterno in the vicinity of Trevi,

In the era of the Comune, when the public assemblies could not be held in the piazza due to bad weather, they were held in the church.

The second half of the 15^th century saw the third and last enlargement of the church, which the Trevi reporter sir Francesco Mugnoni named “San Francisco cresciuto et magnificato”, “Saint Francis grown and glorified”.

In 1777 the new pavement in brickwork was placed. The 27^th November of 1859 in the church the Pius Union of Saint Joseph (founded by Don Ludovico Pieri) was transferred here, who then became its proprietor.

To this congregation we owe the purist restorations of the early 20^th century.

A tablet notes:

IL GIORNO 11 SETTEMBRE 1910 QUESTA CHIESA RIDOTTA AL SUO CLASSICO STILE/ PER OPERA DELLA CONTRATERNITA DI SAN GIUSEPPE/ E BENEMERITI CITTADINI/ VENIVA RIAPERTA SOLENNEMENTE AL CULTO PONTIFICANDO S. ECC. L’ARCIVESCOVO SERAFINI/ ASSISTITO DA S. EM. IL CARDINAL LORENZELLI/ DAL PONTIFICIO COLLEGIO BOEMO/ CON MUSICA ESEGUITA DALLA SCHOLA CANTORUM DEGLI ALLIEVI SALESIANI

Twelve years later, in 1922, the church was “requisite dal Comune per tre anni ed adibita a magazzino del grano” (Confiscated by the Comune for three years and used as a granary).

Architectural Characteristics

The architectural characteristics of the church (which only in 1477 was named in honour of Saint Francis) is very simple, in the style of the mendicanti orders, by a single nave with a cover truss of wood and central pentagonal apse flanked by two rectangular chapels.

The church of Trevi follows, in substance, the same scheme of the Church of Saint Francis in Montefalco, of the fourth decade of the 14^th century.

The south side of the church, with alternations of white and pink stone interrupted by pilasters in white stone, houses the 14^th century entrance door: the splay of the door is made of strips of columns; these, ending with leaved capitals on which lie two protruding lions, join to form an ogival arch, with the mystical lamb sculpted in the keystone.

In the lunette is a fresco of the first years of the 15^th century showing a Madonna and Child between Saints Francis and Clare. To the right of the main doorway a secondary entrance repeats the architectural motifs.

Around the corner, on the south wall we see the apse flanked by two chapels and the bell tower, a double row of loggias, formed with square stones, that lies on the left chapel. The bell chamber houses an ancient bell dating back to 1341.

Internally the building is lit by an opening on the right wall, by a large mullioned window situated in the centre of the apse and by the rose-window through which the sunset filters. Originally on the right wall there was a second opening, covered in 1620 to make space for the construction of the altar dedicated to the Virgin of Snow.

Below the central apse is the polygonal crypt, divided by vaulting-ribs in relief: this area was transformed in the second half of the 16^th century into a place of burial, as the tombstones on the floor of the apse indicate; today it is accessible when visiting the museum. It corresponds to the room located at the back of the large room dedicated to the Museum of the Civilization of the Olive.

In 1970 the roof was rebuilt and some additional maintenance works were completed.

Reopened in 1985, the church of Saint Francis became yet again a site for religious _expression, but also the location for cultural events.

After additional works in 2002, the church was reopened in 2005 after heavy structural restorations which included the recuperation of the apse frescoes and the restoration of the 16^th century organ.

To the left of the central apse the old passageway to the bell tower was found, once joined to an external entrance by a small gallery.

During the reconstruction of the pavement new tombstones were found, as well as a rare roman plaques.

 Translate: Julian Izzo