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St.
Francis' Friary-According to tradition, the friary was founded
by St. Francis from Assisi and has been enlarged and rearranged over the
centuries: Waddingo, the historian, writes in his annals "Seraphicus
Pater venit Scytonium non longe a Clusio anno 1212", ascribing the
foundation of the Friary to St. . Francis in person who left it to the
faithful Blessed Egidio. At the beginning simple shelters of were placed, then the Cetonese population decided "they
needed a more
adequate place where to rest": so they built a little Church and a
little Friary with eight cells. We do not know if this story is
authentic, but there is certainly something true: the presence of St.
Francis in the surroundings of Sarteano is documented in the Franciscan
sources and there is among the first Franciscan friars a certain "Guidus
Scytonesis" (it was probably the Blessed Guido Lucaroni from
Cetona, Blessed Egidio's disciple). The doorway to the friary goes back
to 1500 and there is this inscription on the architrave: DOM. PORTA A
GETTUMULU PER FRANCISCE DIENOMEDES - VISITA 1505. From the door you can
go to a paved cloister: in the middle there is a large underground
cistern for rainwater.The portico encloses the cloister
and shows some reliefs on the capitels of the left columns. The Church,
placed in front of the doorway, emerges from the columns and shows a
style dated back to 1500. On the left of the cloister, after the opening
to a wide and very tidy wood, there is an ancient and tiny church. The
remaining structure is represented by constructions overlapped over the
centuries. The visit to the ex-Friary must be asked to the "Comunità
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Belverde Hermitage-
The Belverde Hermitage (or Stone Hermitage, as cited
in the old documents) rises at the base of an enourmous travertine rock,
submerged by holm-oaks and secular cypresses. The oldest part of the
structure is composed of three overlapped churches, whose foundation
probably goes back to 1000. Characterized by only one nave, barrel
vaults and round arches, the churches were perhaps connected to a
community of quarrymen and stone-cutters who lived in the surroundings:
some tools, such as pickaxes, anvils and hammers are carved in low
relief on the portico capitals of the Lower Church. In 1367, with Henry
IV's diploma, Cetona and a lot of territories were given to William
Beaufort and the Montemarte family from.
Orvieto made donations to the Belverde Church, maybe to save the local
property. Niccolò, member of this family, is commonly considered as the
founder of the friary which was built close to the Churches the same
year. In 1375 the possession of Cetona and the surrounding territory
went to the Montemartes again with Ugolino, Count of Corbara. Some years
later Francesco Montemarte commissioned the frescoes of the Churches to
artists of the Orvieto school who painted them between 1390 and 1391:the
family coat of arms with lilies in red field painted in the Saviour's
Church still testifies this commission. It is possible to recognize the
style of Cola Petruccioli in the Lower Oratory and of Piero di Puccio
and Andrea di Giovanni in the Higher Churches. These three painters were
talented apprentices and collaborators of Ugolino di Prete Ilario in the
execution of the frescoes in the "Cappella del Corporale" in
the Orvieto Cathedral. Then the hand of another painter of the Orvieto
school is present: he is anonimous and known as the "Fourth
Belverde Master". The lower Oratory, consecrated to the Blessed
Virgin Mary, seems almost completely frescoed by Cola Petruccioli di
Petrucciolo who realized a lot of subjects linked to the Virgin,
alternated with other scenes. In the Higher Church consecrated to the
Saviour, there is an organic series of frescoes showing Christ's life.
The painters who worked in this Oratory were Piero di Puccio, Andrea di
Giovanni e the "Fourth Belverde Master". The six scenes of
Magdalen's life on the vault of the adjacent Oratory of St. Mary
Magdalen are ascribed to Andrea di Giovanni. Moreover it is possible to
admire a valuable Via Crucis composed of fourteen 1700 tiles of Senese
school which were inspired by prints coming from North Europe. |