Key to Umbria: Gualdo Tadino
 


Monuments of Gualdo Tadino


Umbria:  Home   Cities    History    Art    Hagiography    Contact 

   

Gualdo Tadino:  Home    History    Art    Saints    Walks    Monuments    Museums

Medieval Gates (1242)

The present walls of Gualdo Tadino were built by the Emperor Frederick II in 1242.  Two of its original gates survive: the others were: Porta San Martino; and Porta San Facondino.

Porta San Benedetto

      

This gate was named for the now-demolished Abbazia di San Benedetto Vecchio in the plain below.  An inscription on the lintel to the left (as you look from inside) reads:

Porta di San Benedetto, regnando Federico Imperatore,

nel mese quarto dell' anno del Signore MDCCXLII

recording the construction of the gate (and the rest of the city walls) by the Emperor Frederick II in April 1242. 

Porta San Donato

The Commune granted the tower above it to the monks of San Nicolò (below) in the 1790s so that they could extend their monastery. 






Sant’ Agostino (demolished)

This church and convent were documented in 1288.

The church was reconstructed after the earthquake of 1612 and had to be comprehensively restored after the earthquake of 1751.

The convent was suppressed in 1860.  An orphanage that was established here was moved here from the ex-Monastero di San Nicolò (below) in 1912.

The church was deconsecrated in 1922, when its altars were moved to San Donato.  the complex was subsequently demolished.

Crucifix (14th century)

This polychrome wooden crucifix is now in the Pinacoteca Comunale.







SS Augustine and Catherine of Alexandria (16th century)


These two small canvases in the Pinacoteca Comunale almost certainly came from Sant’ Agostino, the seat of the Confraternita di SS Agostino e Caterina, and were probably used in processions by the confraternity.  The canvases, which are attributed to Luca Nucci, depict:

  1. ✴St Augustine enthroned, with members of the confraternity; and

  2. ✴the standing St Catherine crowned by putti, with female associate members of the confraternity.

Doors (Date?)

   

These two doors from Sant’ Agostino are now in the Pinacoteca Comunale.

Sant’ Ippolito (ca. 1670)

This tiny church was built by two priests from Gualdo, Girolamo and Carlo Mannelli, and remained in the ownership of that family until the late 18th century.  An earlier church had been documented on or near the site in the 15th century.  It subsequently passed, in turn, to the Coppari, Calai and Sinibaldi families.

Madonna and Child with saints (ca. 1668)

This panel, which depicts the Madonna and Child enthroned with SS Joseph and Hippolytus and which is attributed to Francesco Allegrini, came from Sant’ Ippolito.  The panel was donated by a member of the Sinibaldi family to the Pinacoteca Comunale in 2010, as recorded in this page of the website of the Commune.





Santa Maria del Piano (1663-6)

According to tradition, a pilgrim who carried an altarpiece of the Madonna di Loreto along Via Flaminia in 1660 stopped at this site for a rest.  However, when he tried to resume his journey, he was prevented from so-doing  by the sudden onset of fog.  The people of the city regarded this as a sign that they had been forgiven for the sins that had prompted the onset of a recent epidemic of plague.   They therefore prevailed upon the pilgrim to leave the image behind, and built this church to house it.  Bishop Mario Montani laid the foundation stone in 1663 and construction was completed three years later.

Bishop Giovanni Battista Chiappé consecrated the church in 1730.  It needed extensive restoration after the earthquake of 1751 and was subordinated to San Giovanni Laterano, Rome in 1767.

Santa Maria del Purgo (1647)

This church, which is also known as the Chiesa della Madonnuccia, was built to house a fresco (16th century) known as the "Maestà di Maria Vergine del Purgo", which was originally in a tabernacle nearby.   The word “purgo” was probably originally “spurgo”, a reference to a drain used by a nearby wool factory.  Bishop Mario Montani authorised its use for cult purposes in 1663.  It became the headquarters of a charitable society, the Società Mariana, in 1882.




Santa Maria di Rote (1647, rebuilt in 1927)

A nobleman from Gualdo Tadino called Pietro Feliciani built this church on the site of a wayside tabernacle that contained a fresco known as Santa Maria di Rote.  The origin of the phrase “di Rote”  (or sometimes “delle Rotte”) is unclear: the tradition that this was the site of Totila’s defeat at the Battle of Tadinum in 552 is without foundation.

The first civic cemetery of Gualdo Tadino was established beside this church during a cholera epidemic in 1855.  This cemetery closed when the new one was opened at San Facundino in 1890.   The bones from the old cemetery were interred in a common grave under the pavement of the church in 1923, and the Commune rebuilt church itself in 1927 to provide a decent environment for them.

Santa Maria di Tadino (1240s) 

After the destruction of Tadinum in 996 and the loss of episcopal status, it seems that what was left of the old community established a parish church, the Pieve di Santa Maria di Tadino, on the site.  It was documented in 1139 as a dependency of the Eremo di Fonte Avellana. 




It was rebuilt just outside Porta San Martino shortly after the completion of the new city walls: much of the façade survives from that period.   It probably retained its importance until the completion of San Benedetto in 1256.  Central to this was its role as a baptistery: its font was transferred to SanDonato in 1567, when this church passed to the nuns of Santa Chiara (see below).

The Confraternita di Santa Maria dei Raccomandati built an adjacent hospice in 1373.

The complex passed to the nuns of Santa Chiara in 1567.

San Nicolò (demolished)

This church of San Nicolò was first documented in 1468, albeit that it was probably well-established by that time.  A Sylvestrine monastery was established next to it in 1614.    The Commune granted the tower above Porta San Donato (above) to the monks of San Nicolò in the 1790s so that they could extend their monastery.

The Sylvestrine community was suppressed in 1860.  An orphanage was moved here from the ex-Convento di  Sant‘ Agostino (above) in 1912, at which point the church was closed.  [The complex was subsequently demolished.]

Madonna and Child with saints (1471)


This altarpiece in the Pinacoteca Comunale, which is signed by Matteo da Gualdo and dated by inscription, was documented in San Nicolò in 1871, as it was about to enter the civic collection.  Its original location is unknown.  It depicts Madonna and Child with angels and SS John the Baptist and John the Evangelist.  The predella panels depict:

  1. ✴the Baptism of Christ by St John the Baptist;

  2. ✴the Last Supper; and

  3. ✴St John the Evangelist raising the widow Drusiana from the dead.

Madonna and Child with saints (17th century)

This altarpiece in the Pinacoteca Comunale, which is attributed to Avanzino Nucci, came from San Nicolò.  It depicts the Madonna and Child in Glory with: the Archangel Raphael and Tobias; SS Jerome and Antony Abbot; and the so-called Guardian Angel (angelo custode).





Holy House of Loreto with saints (17th century)

This documented but now-lost altarpiece of the Holy House of Loreto with SS Nicholas of Bari and Charles Borromeo from the high altar has recently been attributed to Avanzino Nucci.

San Rocco (1476)

This tiny semi-circular church was built using donations by two survivors of the epidemic of plague that hit the surrounding area in 1476.

When the Erermo di San Marzio collapsed in ca. 1600, the relics of the Blessed Martius were moved to the nearby tiny church of Sant’ Anna.  When this church also collapsed in 1608, the relics were moved again to San Rocco.  In 1766, at which time San Rocco was administered by the commendatory abbot of San Donato, this abbot opposed a request by the friars of San Francesco to move the relics to their church.  They thwarted his intention to translate them to San Donato by taking them, without authorisation, to their church.

Frescoes (15th century)

The walls of the church were originally covered in votive frescoes.  The few fragments that survive include the following that are attributed to Matteo da Gualdo:

  1. ✴the Madonna and Child enthroned, in which the baby Jesus holds a bunch of grapes; and

  2. ✴the Madonna and Child and St Sebastian.


Return to Monuments of Gubbio.


Return to Walk around Gualdo Tadino (for all monument except those below), or

Excursions from  Gualdo Tadino (Sant’ Ippolito ; Santa Maria del Piano;

Santa Maria di Rote; San Rocco)