CHURCH OF MADONNA DEL GIGLIO

HISTORY

The church stands in the hamlet of Zepponami and was built around 1854 to replace the small church that once stood in the Giglio Vecchio district, thanks to the will of the Capuchin friars of Montefiascone and some residents. In particular, the attitude and determination of the Capuchin Father Santi da Viterbo – helped by local donors from the contrada and the nearby countryside – meant that the construction of the Madonna del Giglio and San Felice da Cantalice factory was completed. The head – master mason Adriano Bronzetti was commissioned to set up and carry out the works. Under the improvised direction of Father Santi da Viterbo first, and then of the architect Enrico Calandrelli of Viterbo (adept of Vespignani), the building was completed. The simple and elegant decorations of the interior of the church were carried out by Cesare Viali in 1867. In that same year the church was complete in all its parts, and was inaugurated on the first of September with a solemn procession by Bishop Giuseppe Bovieri. The image of the Madonna del Giglio was moved from the old church (no longer existing) to the new one, and placed on the high altar. In the same years the brotherhood was established with the name of San Felice da Cantalice and then called Santa Maria del Giglio. Immediately after the unification of Italy, during the suppression of ecclesiastical bodies wanted by the Italian government, the Capuchins of the convent in the district of Montefiascone, expelled from the convent, were hosted by some families in the village, others took refuge in the hamlet of Zepponami , contributing to the activities of the church of the Madonna del Giglio, and to the works of the small adjoining convent (1873). In 1995 the church underwent major restorations both inside and outside. The high altar dedicated to Maria SS. del Giglio and a painted ceramic was placed there, depicting the Annunciation of the Lord to the Madonna, by the sculptor Mario Vinci. The presbytery was also restored.

THE EXTERIOR

The façade, set in its simple hut shape, above the portal has a peperino tympanum inside which stands out the dedication to the Virgin TO GOD O. M. IN HONOR OF MARY SS. DEL GIGLIO. Above the tympanum, a lunette allows light to penetrate the building. On the sides of the portal, two symmetrically placed square windows conclude the simple decoration of the facade. The bell tower that overlooks the roof houses a bell built at the same time as the church’s inauguration (1867), “a gift to the new church .. weighing about 150 pounds … by Giovanni Biscotto”.

THE INTERIOR

After passing the compass (door in lead-painted glass – Jubilee of 2000) you enter the large rectangular nave. The simple and elegant decorations of the interior of the church that were carried out by Cesare Viali in 1867 immediately stand out. The first chapel on the right is preceded, leaning against the wall, by a processional banner with the image of Sant’Anna teaching the Virgin. reading. A little further on, we enter the baptismal font chapel. On the back wall a modern image of the Baptism of Christ is represented. Near the same wall is the baptismal font in peperino. Communicating with the first chapel through a small door, we find the Pepponi chapel. The chapel, as evidenced also by the epigraph on the right wall, was built by his brother Giuseppe Pepponi in 1866. Pepponi himself had it restored in 1956, and in 1969, they had the altar built that still decorates it today. The altar is located on the back wall, and above this in a niche, the statue of St. Joseph with the Child. On the left of the back wall is the Baldacchino or Machina of the Madonna del Giglio. The image of the Madonna del Giglio makes a fine show in the canopy framed by the rays made of golden stucco. The canopy, as we learn from the sources, was the one used for the solemn transport of the image of the Madonna del Giglio to the new church in 1867 on the occasion of the inauguration of the temple, once located in the chapel of the homonymous brotherhood, donated by the brothers Merlo Antonio and Vincenzo , confreres. From the nave, via two steps, you enter the presbytery area. The main altar built in 2001 by Mario Vinci with painted ceramics is located inside. The Annunciation is represented on the front of the altar. The decoration of the basin and the apse lunette, albeit with recent overpainting, were carried out by Cesare Viali in 1867. In the lunette the Almond with the cross and the Agnus Dei are depicted in the center. Arranged symmetrically in heraldic form two angels in prayer. Inside a temple surmounted by a tympanum, in the apse wall we find the image of the Madonna del Giglio transported here on the occasion of the solemn inauguration of the new church. Returning to the nave, opposite the Pepponi chapel, on the left wall, is the chapel of the Madonna del Giglio once dedicated to San Felice da Cantalice, and managed by the brotherhood of the same name. The chapel can be reached from the nave through a monumental arch. Inside it houses on the right the wooden statue of San Felice da Cantalice, and on the left the painted wooden statue of the Virgin. At the end of the chapel there is an apse with an altar, surmounted by a wooden crucifix. The simple decoration of the entire church ends in the left wall of the nave, positioned just before the chapel of the Madonna del Giglio, with another processional banner with the image of the Glory of Christ. On the opposite wall a simple wooden choir leans on the modern compass.

ESSENTIAL BIBLIOGRAPHY

G. BRECCOLA – M. MARI, Montefiascone, Grotte di Castro 1979.
P. BRIGLIOZZI, Storia del Convento dei Cappuccini, in “La Voce, mensile di Montefiascone”, Montefiascone 1977.
R. CORDOVANI, I Cappuccini a Montefiascone, Montefiascone 1982, pp. 79-92, dove si riporta il documento da originale manoscritto con un “Cenno storico sulla nuova chiesa rurale nel contado di Montefiascone contrada di Zepponami e sulla istituzione della Venerabile Confraternita di Maria Santissima del Giglio e S. Felice da Cantalice nella chiesa suddetta”.
R. CORDOVANI, Cronaca manoscritta del convento dei cappuccini di Montefiascone, in Biblioteca e Società, Viterbo 1982.