CRYPT OF SANTA LUCIA FILIPPINI

THE HISTORY

The thickness of the walls of the lower church of Santa Margherita, not pertinent to the massive construction that supports the upper floor of the building, as well as the fourteenth-century entrance portal that now allows access to the crypt, denote how once the primitive church must have been located at the current level. Towards the end of the fifteenth century, Cardinal Domenico Della Rovere was the promoter of an expansion project of the original fourteenth-century church which included the extension of the building. The works were soon interrupted as they did not satisfy the expectations of the cardinal, who therefore elaborated a more ambitious renovation project for the church which, supported by an octagonal construction, inscribed in the previous rectangular space of the church, should have emerged on the most important road axis. superior. The rigorous centralized structure, which constitutes the lower church of Santa Margherita, reveals the imprint of Bramante’s language, perhaps mediated by the Florentine architect Antico di Stefano, who appears in ancient documents as a Fabbricator ecclesiae Sancte Margarite. The crypt, which in the past centuries was overshadowed by the overlying cathedral, has regained importance following the enhancement interventions promoted by Bishop Luigi Boccadoro in 1962, who on that occasion consecrated it to Saint Lucia Filippini.

DESCRIPTION

On the back of the church of Santa Margherita, a portal with a typically fourteenth-century pointed arch allows entry to the crypt, which has a very severe architectural layout. A series of eight round arches enclose the central circular space dominated by the high altar, laterally decorated with two marble high-reliefs by the sculptor Dante Ruffini portraying, the one on the right, Saint Lucia Filippini educating young people, the other Cardinal Barbarigo who hands the crucifix to the Saint. The body of Saint Lucia Filippini is kept in the tomb below the altar. The perimeter walls are marked by niches within which a Via Crucis has been placed consisting of thirteen sculptural groups in terracotta, the work of the master Mario Vinci. In some of these niches there is the sepulcher of Cardinal Marco Antonio Barbarigo, founder of the seminary of Montefiascone and of the institute of the Maestre Pie, as well as bishop of the diocese of Montefiascone from 1687 to 1706; the marble sarcophagus of Monsignor Giovanni Rosi, bishop of Montefiascone from 1911 to 1951, decorated with four statues representing the cardinal virtues, by the sculptor Dante Ruffini; and the burial of Archbishop Tommaso Leonetti. An organ from the church of San Francesco in Montefiascone, built in 1858 by the artisan Camillo del Chiaro from Fabriano, is leaning against one wall. In the side room, below the choir of the upper church, there is the baptismal font chapel. The three stained glass windows, the work of Father Ugolino da Belluno, depict, from left to right, the symbols of the theological virtues: Faith, Hope and Charity; the baptism of Christ; and the three forms of baptism, namely water, blood and desire. The bronze reliefs of the source are instead the work of the sculptor Dante Ruffini and depict the expulsion of Adam and Eve from the earthly Paradise and Moses making water gush out of the rock.

ESSENTIAL BIBLIOGRAPHY

BRECCOLA G. – MARI M., Montefiascone, Grotte di Castro 1979
BRECCOLA G., Montefiascone. Guida alla scoperta, Montefiascone 2006.