SANCTUARY OF SAN MICHELE ARCANGELO

HISTORICAL NOTES AND DESCRIPTION

It was in 1358 Nicolò Biagio da Vitorchiano who built the sanctuary on land owned by Feneguerra, and, following the desire expressed by the parish priest, who, in 1319, had made a trip to Puglia on the Gargano in the places dedicated to S. Michele, the church was dedicated to the saint. Precious, to reconstruct some historical details, the canonical document of April 28, 1358 kept in the Vatican Archives, from which we learn that: “the canons of the chapter of the Church of S. Giovanni in Laterano grant Nicola Blaxii of Vitorchiano after prayer, the right to build a church, with the hut, the cemetery and the baptismal font, dedicated to St. Michael the Archangel. The Lateran reserves the right to collect an ounce of saffron each year at Easter, as a form of census, and to approve the appointment of elected rectors “.

The Lateran concession mentions a church with an altar, workshops, cemetery, baptistery. When the beneficiary died, another was elected and secretary and priors gave the election to solemn office in public and communicated the name of the designated person to the canons in S. Giovanni in Laterano. The hermit building adjacent to the sanctuary, of fourteenth-century origin, is private property, but on May 8, the feast of the patron saint, the faithful have free access to the sacred wood.

The Church of San Michele Arcangelo stands on a hill outside the town, and can be reached through the Porta Tiberina, along the “piagge”. The Sanctuary stands in a natural environment that closely resembles that of the sanctuary of San Michele Arcangelo al Gargano in the province of Foggia, perhaps deliberately built here by Nicolò Biagio da Vitorchiano in the mid-fourteenth century in an attempt to recall the religious fervor of which had been illuminated during his trip to Puglia in 1319. The facade of the sanctuary is characterized by a simple gabled structure, with a double sloping roof and a rose window decorated inside with a cross. On the sides of the access portal built with a simple trilithic structure, there are two windows with a round arch in heraldic form. On the side of the church, which faces south towards the town, a bell gable with a small bell in situ is incorporated.

Inside, the church has a single nave with a barrel vault, and is simple and bare on the side walls. In the presbytery area, a peperino balustrade separates the sacred area from that intended for the faithful. At the center of the presbytery a modern peperino altar. Immediately after, leaning against the apse wall, the main altar. Above the table of the main altar there is a stucco decoration, with lateral volutes decorated with festoons, which support a jutting crescent-shaped tympanum. Here, inside the niche, the life-size statue of the eighteenth century dedicated to St. Michael the Archangel is preserved, carved in peperino and painted in recent times on the entire surface. The holy warrior is in the act of brandishing his sword with his right arm on the devil lying at his feet.

ESSENTIAL BIBLIOGRAPHY

Santuario di San Michele Arcangelo in Vitorchiano e il bosco sacro, curated by Maria Teresa Sciarra, Viterbo 2010.

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

A special thanks to dr. Andrea Presutti for scientific advice and archival 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.