FORMER CHURCH OF SAN GIOVANNI BATTISTA

HISTORICAL NOTES AND DESCRIPTION

The construction of the church dates back to 1556, the year of the pontificate of Pius V. The structure was entrusted to the Confraternity of Mercy, aggregated to the Compagnia della Misericordia of Rome in 1567. Next to the church there was a hermitage, given in emphyteusis with land annexed in 1568 .

The gabled façade of the former Church of San Giovanni Battista is in fifteenth-century style, now used as a meeting place for various cultural and sporting events.

A double flight staircase leads to the access portal with grooved jambs and architrave engraved with the following phrase: PRECVRSORI-DICATVM, and surmounted by a molded pediment. The façade, redone in style and which diverges from the side masonry of the building, is characterized by a string course, which identifies two levels, on which the window is placed. This is surrounded by jambs ending in volutes, and an architrave with a ribbon decoration in the center ending at the bottom with a face. The church culminates, at the top, with a gable with a fluted frame that ends, at the sides, with sculptural elements in peperino. At the center of the tympanum is a niche with a statue of St. John the Baptist dating back to the century. XVIII in terracotta, from the Viterbo area. On a high base decorated with two stars and the mountain with three peaks, rests the statue wearing the fur and in the right hand the stick.

On the left side of the façade is a hardly legible engraved plaque bearing a date, while on the left side wall is a secondary entrance portal to the church, with grooved jambs and architrave engraved with the phrase MISSVS A DEO.

The interior of the church has a single nave with a wooden trussed vault, completely renovated. The presbytery, with a cross vault painted in pink, was divided into two areas by a partition with peperino pillars and curtains, outside of which objects intended for play and recreation are kept. The counter-façade has a small entrance hall, emerging from the two side sections of the wall. The window is visible at the top, the only source of natural light.

ESSENTIAL BIBLIOGRAPHY

Vitorchiano, il passato presente, edition edited by Fiorenzo Mascagna, historical research by Elide Vagnozzi, Stampa Arti Grafiche Artigiane 2005.

E. Pietroni, file OA in Varie Vitorchiano, 1995.

A special thanks to dr. Andrea Presutti for scientific advice and archival photographic material provided on Vitorchiano:

– Facebook page of Andrea Presutti Archive photographic material provided on Vitorchiano.

– Vitorchiano com’era  Facebook page for collecting old photos of the beautiful village of Vitorchiano, in the province of Viterbo. Images of the country, its inhabitants and its traditions.