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Church of St. Euphemia - Spoleto

A jewel of the church, located in the courtyard of the archbishop's residence, inspired by a deep sense of recollection, fascinate with the sobriety and purity of the Romanesque style. Ancient historical sources testify that towards the century. X, near the Ducal Palace, there was already a church of St. Euphemia, when Spoleto was still the capital of a powerful duchy. There was then added a convent of Benedictine nuns founded dall'abatessa Gunderada, probable Germanic origins. After the Goths had killed the Bishop of Spoleto, John, in the sixth century, it was she to make the translation of the body in the church of St. Euphemia from the year 980. After that fact, it was decided to give the church the name of St. John . The Emperor Henry II then gave the monastery to Acodo count, in 1017, causing the change of destination. During the period when the Cathedral underwent extension work, towards the end of the century. XII, the bishops abandoned the primitive residence, who was behind the Duomo, to move here, building their residential building around the area of the church, which was then integrated architecturally with Lombard elements.

In the fifteenth century the church was named St. Lucia, after the discovery of a fresco of Santa on a column of the right aisle, the local school of the fifteenth century. The small temple then fell into decline in the following centuries, suffering unhappy remakes, which disfigured the physiognomy, to finally be used privately by the Archbishop. Thanks to the intervention of the archaeologist G. Sordini Spoleto, that in 1907 it began the work, which concluded in 1954 by the Superintendent Umbra, Spoleto today can offer one of the most preserved and original Romanesque art jewels of Lombard inspiration. Its present appearance artistic and architectural dates back to the first half of the twelfth century, when in Spoleto already flourished a school of masons, influenced by Lombard colleagues, the so-called Masters of Como.

The facade is covered with light tan and decorated with sober Romanesque arches of the Archaic period, a beautiful portal to rincassati arches, with monoforine and the mullioned window, restoration, at the center. The interior is divided into three naves. High half-columns, in the middle, say of vaulted arches, and it's triggering the nave. The narrow space is punctuated by columns and pillars. Are all counting items that belonged to classical and early medieval buildings, found a bit 'everywhere and stored in place between the eleventh and twelfth centuries.
Remarkable, in the right aisle, between the second and third span, a pillar used as support instead of a column, lavishly decorated on three sides and comes perhaps from the fence of a historic building from the early medieval. It is the only church in Umbria to possess senior women's galleries, Lombard style, similar to the galleries once reserved for women only.

The nave is preceded by an inner narthex, once reserved for the catechumens, it precedes. At the center of the sanctuary is placed an antique marble altar from the Cathedral. A wonderful frontal enriches the front cosmatesche with mosaic decorations and the symbols of the four Evangelists and the Agnus Dei, rimmed by reliefs of exquisite workmanship. The apse, remained bare fresco that decorated in 1558, retains only an image of the LORD among the cherubim from the early century. XVI. Being the long building desecrated, the archdiocese often transfers it to special liturgical events, arts and culture, such as concerts and exhibitions of sacred character. Notable concerts of '' Now Mistica "taking place during the Festival. In recent times he has gained fame as a nova church of Don Matteo, star of popular fiction.