Montefalco, a village among euphoria and spirituality

Along the main street, you can see St. Augustine Church, which is built in the typical simple mendicant order style, with a simple and essential single nave, to which was added a side aisle, originally facing the street and used as a covered market. On the left side of the walls, there are some frescoes: the Coronation of the Virgin by Ambrogio Lorenzetti, Madonna of the Girdle painted by Giovan Battista Caporali from Perugia in 1520, and Madonna and Child with Saint Augustine and Blessed Angelo from Foligno painted in the second half of the 15th century by Ugolino da Gisberto from Foligno who founded the convent, and the Church Sacristy. The frescoes on the triumphal arch are also very interesting and you can see the Annunciation on the left and the Nativity on the right, in which the baby is tightly wrapped in swaddling cloth and laid in a stone manger, anticipating his Passion. The sacristy is particularly impressive: it is a place that triggers in the visitor’s mind a feeling of wonder and admiration for its frescoes dating back to the 14th century, which collectively represents a true cycle of paintings. Moving outside the first city walls, we find an area with several religious settlements. The first monastery you see is the one belonging to the Augustinian nuns of St. Clare of the Cross, who vowed a contemplative life. The building complex is dominated by the massive sanctuary, which, although it includes parts of the original settlement where St Clare lived and died, was built in the 17th century. In a silver reliquary modeled as the saint’s half-bust, you can see the heart, while on the left, in a silver cross, you can see the “signs of the Passion” found by the nuns after Clare’s death in 1308. By ringing the bell, it is possible to visit the oldest part of the convent. The Chapel of the Holy Cross is also accessible. The apsidal part of the little church where Clare died is frescoed with a cycle of paintings by unknown Umbrian painters in 1333.