Last minute Sant'Anatolia di Narco: the Church of San Felice

One of the most important and interesting centres of Sant'Anatolia di Narco is for sure the hamlet Castel San Felice, another fortified village with a strong personality and a unique charm.

A proper gem of the Romanesque architecture is here, the Church of San Felice di Narco.

According to the tradition on the place where now rises the church used to be an ancient coenoby which was found by St Mauro di Siria, the father of San Felice, of whom didn't remain any trace.

The church was without any doubt a very important religious centre, becoming even a prioral and a collegiate church. This is demonstrated by the enormous value of the building, but also by an illustrated document, that consists of two handwritten volumes from the 12^th century containing topics related to the saints worshipped at Spoleto. The two codexes originate just from the church of San Felice di Narco and are now kept in the capitular library at Spoleto.

From the text results that the church was built around 1190 in the course of the complete reconstruction of a former Benedictine building which had been built after the drainage of the zone.

The façade is an admirable example for the Romanesque architecture of Spoleto, carried out as imitation of the Basilica di San Salvatore, a model that inspired many planner of other buildings of this period.

The rose-window is a magnificent product of the Umbrian Romanesque, too, as it is decorated with the symbols of the evangelists and the relieves below, that portray two stories of San Felice, the ''killing of the dragon'' and ''the resurrection of the widow's son''.

The dragon killed by San Felice is just the transposition of the river Nera, that was considered in ancient times a dangerous antagonist which had to be fought and defeated. The killing of the dragon represents symbolically the reclamation of the territory which had been marshy and cause of illness and death.

Sant'Anatolia di Narco, a village in the Valnerina - The little town Sant'Anatolia di Narco is a wonderful medieval village, narrow and retired on a low hill it maintains unaltered its characteristics of a fortified castl...