OF ST. MONICA
This church, which is dedicated to the mother of St Augustine, belonged to the adjacent convent of Augustinian nuns, who administrated it. Its construction dates back to the beginning of the 17th century: the facade remained unfinished and it displays a brick masonry that should have had a marble or a plaster cladding. On the wall of the lateral entrance vestibule, there is a votive fresco, attributed to Liotardo Piccioli and recently vested to Tarquinio Racani.
It depicts the Madonna with the Child in glory between angels protecting the city of Amelia (the historical cityscape of Amelia, that appears under the holy scene is of great interest). The internal part of the church has only with one nave: inside a recess on the right side, there is a panel, dated 1642, that represents The Coronation of the Virgin between Saints Nicholas of Tolentino, Thomas of Villanova, Clare of Montefalco and Monica, which is signed by Bartolomeo Barbiani (Montepulciano 1597-1645), an eclectic painter with a style that swings between the later-Mannerism and the Baroque. He left a lot of works of art in the territory between Todi and Amelia. On the high altar there is a painting that is attributed without any certainty to the painter Andrea Polinori of Todi. It represents The Madonna with the Child between Saints. The decoration of the vault dates back to the 18th century: the frescoes represent Angels carrying the symbols of the Augustinian Order and they are attributed to
Francesco Appiani and his collaborator Luigi Carattoli. They were appointed to execute the frescoes of the nearby church of St. Augustine during those same years (cross reference to panel nr. 13). The technique of trompe-l’oeil (false perspective), that is used in these frescoes, recalls the one of the false dome that is frescoed on the vault of the church of St. Ignatius in Rome, realized in 1685 by the famous Jesuit artist Andrea Pozzo, who is among the biggest exponents of the Baroque painting and of the “Quadraturismo”, a pictorial genre consisting in the realization of squares, that are architectures painted inside a rigorous perspective trestle.
Former Church of the Crucifix Going along Via Cavour, crossing Via del Crocifisso, there is a steep staircase that leads to a terracing supported by a bank. Here we can find a small place of worship, in an unusual position. It is the church of the Crucifix, to which is annexed an opening that was the seat of the Oratory of the confraternity that took the same name of the church. The church was built on an earlier religious building, probably of Medieval origins. Inside there are wooden altars with emblems of the ancient guilds, some paintings of the 1600s and 1700s, including one of particular value that depicts the “Charity of St. Omobono”; an interesting 18th century organ is located overhanging the choir. The church, that is now deconsecrated, periodically hosts the concerts organized and promoted by the “Corale Amerina”.