Religious_passage

  
											

																																		
																																			
																																				 
 Religious 
Passage
The territory 
	of Leonessa for centuries has been passed between the borders of the Diocese 
	of Spoleto and that of Rieti: the territories of Forcamelone, Pianezza, 
	Narnate, already part of Dukedom of Longobardo, that remained under the 
	Spoletine guild when the territory of Leonessa was founded. The city-state, 
	of characteristic federal structure, maintained, in the realm of the Diocese 
	of Spoleto, the sects of San Nicola of Forcamelone, San Martino of Pianezza 
	and Santa Maria of Torre, San Venanzio of Terzone, while the sects of Sant'Egidio 
	of Corno, San Nicola of Poggiolupo, Santa Maria of Croce were subject to the 
	authority of the bishop of Rieti. The singularity of this territorial 
	arrangement determined frequent arguments and disputes for the definition of 
	borders, but, just the same, it allowed for an extraordinary flourishing of 
	sacred architecture and art thanks to the presence of the Mendicanti Orders 
	(they developed respectively in 1282 and 1295 into the convent of Saint 
	Francis and the Monastery of Saint Lucia, while the Augustines founded the 
	convents of Saint Augustine and Saint Anthony during the XIII and XIV 
	centuries) and the activities of numerous brotherhoods that promoted and 
	enhanced the devotion and religiousness of the general population.
 

 
Church of 
	Saint Maria  
The collegiate 
	church, named after the Madonna, called Saint Maria of People or of the 
	priest, was erected around the middle of th XV century and enlarged during 
	the course of the XVI century. With the facade, in red stone of Aquila, and 
	above, an agile bell tower, it is characterized by an impressive door that 
	hints towards the late Romanesque style even though it was constructed in 
	the beginning of the sixth century (1514): the pointed barrel-vault is 
	sustainede by a bunch of strongly splayed pillars. In the mandorla there is 
	a high-relief representing the Madonna. The interior of the church has three 
	aisles, branching out from two symmetrical series of round arches.

	
 
Church of 
	Saint Peter
The church was 
	originally annexed to the convent of the Augustine order, established in 
	Leonessa towards the end  of the XIII century. On the facade is a 
	masonry of square stone crowed horizontally and a rounded doorway, made out 
	of red stone, dated 1467, decorated with bunches of fine pillars and above 
	it by a gable. As part of the sculptural decorations of the architrave is a 
	bas-relief inscribed with the Urbico stem, distinguished by a raging lion 
	that hugs the letter P, a symbol of the sovereignty of the people that was 
	always proudy declared.

	
 
Outside of the 
	doorway, but in symmetry with the facade, the masonry in the front opens 
	into the shapes of an eye that is framed by a harmonious centering. Aligning 
	the facade in the slender, pointed bell tower that extends up in three 
	series, the last of which is brightened by mullioned windows. The 
	disposition of the various architectural elements individualizes the 
	progression of the intervention of following structural additions throughout 
	the centuries, guaranteeing a substantial equilibrium that reflects itself 
	in the internal structure of the church, found by crossing an trapezoidal 
	atrium that connects both the aisles and the bell tower. The church was 
	reconstructed into only one aisle on the sides, each which open 
	symmetrically into four chapels.
 

	
 

	
	
 

																																			

																																	