FRANCESCAN ITINERARY
City of Amelia Tourist Portal
St. Francis, in the course of its continuous pilgrimages in earth of umbria, visited also Amelia, and some localities of the outskirtses leaving traces of its enlivening presence and its work.
To Amelia was built the Church of S.Francesco (1287) which in the XIV sec. was annexed the Convent of the friars Minors. To the inside remarkable, in the Chapel of Sant’Antonio, on the right, the funeral monuments of the Geraldini family, in particular those of Matteo and Elisabetta, work of Agostino di Duccio (1477).
Leaving the church you can access, on the right, through a beautiful Renaissance portal to the Ex Collegio Boccarini, today seat of the Civic Archaeological Museum and Art Gallery “E.Rosa” which houses the famous statue of Germanicus.
The Church of “Santa Maria delle Cinque Fonti”, which dates back to the fifteenth century, with subsequent changes, owes its name to the presence, in the immediate vicinity, of five medieval arches containing five sources, unfortunately now incorporated by modern superstructures. Tradition has it that the Church was erected in memory of a conversion made by Saint Francis in this place in 1213.
The exterior of the building, quite simple, has a facade characterized by two windows called “wayfarer”: they allowed to follow the mass also from outside. Inside there are some valuable fresco paintings; on the high altar the Holy Mary with child, on the sides the “Saints Rocco, Cristoforo and Sebastiano”, without any doubt the most ancient work.
The Convent of the SS.Annunziata dipped in the green of a lecceta to few kilometers from Amelia is the more known and ancient Franciscan Convent of the Amerino. The first inhabited nucleus was of hermits; the church, which is accessed by a beautiful courtyard, presents inside an Annunciation painted by Bruschi.
Originally the church kept the famous “Gardner Annunciation” painted in 1481 by Pier Matteo d’Amelia and now exhibited in the Gardner Museum in Boston. The cloister also belongs to the convent, the Planetarium which reproduces some astronomical phenomena and finally the magnificent Permanent Nativity Scene made in plaster by the famous Spanish crib Juan Marì Oliva with Carlo Chiappafreddo.
The Convent, a few kilometers from the center, is located in an admirable panoramic position immersed in the silent green of a forest; formerly a hospice for pilgrims and the sick (1156), then home to the “Nuns of San Magno”, in the century. XVI (1550), The complex (known as “San Giacomo de redere”) passed to the Capuchin Friars Minor.
Recently enlarged and renovated, it can accommodate pilgrims and tourists eager to restore their spirit.In the church you can admire: a beautiful canvas attributed to the square, depicting “The Madonna with Saints”; a remarkable “wooden crucifix” placed in the place; a precious painting of “The Last Supper” placed in the refectory. At the center of the cloister a modern statue of St. Francis of Assisi has recently been placed, the work of the sculptor Aurelio De Felice