Last minute Itinerari Stroncone

The town Stroncone

The main city entrance is the Porta del Borgo, which is the access to the medieval suburb, composed by a double barrel-vault, the lower one is an ogival arch and the higher one a round arch, surmounted by a three arcs arcade.

A building of great merit is certainly the Church of San Michele Arcangelo, one of the most ancient of Stroncone, already mentioned in a document of the year 1012, the Chronicon Farfense, compiled by Gregorio da Catino. The very particular entrance portal is asymmetrical and realised in 1488. The inside has three aisles, and the walls are elegantly decorated by numerous works of art, among which we remember " Madonna of the Rosary", and a wooden "Crucifix" of the XIV century.

Another building of very ancient cult is the San Nicolò Church, built in a period anterior to 1181. Always of same period is the portal, realised during the XII century and decorated by motives of Byzantine origin. The "the Madonna's Crowning", a polyptyc realised by Rinaldo da Calvi (a student of Spagna) in 1520 is a valuable painting preserved inside the church.

Another important jewel for the city of Stroncone is the oratory of San Giovanni Decollato a work probably dated XVI century. It has two valuable portals in stone, while the insides are equipped of numerous frescos that enrich its decorum. Marvellous is the shovel of the greater altar, which illustrates the martyrdom of San Giovanni, Giuseppe's Bastioni work, named Giuseppino da Macerata.

The Church and the Convent of St. Francis, are linked to the life of the Saint of Assisi and to the cult of the blessed Antonio Vici, of which the bare are preserved. Antonio Vici was born in Stroncone in 1381, began the novitiate in the Convent of St. Francis, operating a lot for spreading the Franciscan Order especially in Tuscany. Overcome the thirty years he moved to Assisi, in the Ermo delle Carceri. He died on 7^th February 1461, was beatified in 1687, while in the first years of the eight hundred its body was moved to the actual urn, in the Chapel in San Diego, above the altar of the aisle of right.

The complex was built during the XIII century, above one of the places frequented by St. Francis, where rose an anciently an aeducule devoted to the Madonna. The church is rich of paintings and frescos, some of them of elevated artistic merit as the fragmentary the "Madonna in throne with St. Francis". According to some opinions, the painting would be a fundamental testimony respect the Saint of Assisi, since the representation of its image would be more similar than others to the reality, thanks to its physical presence in the period of the construction of the convent.

In the chapel annexed to the church, there's one of the masterpieces of Tiberio d'Assisi, the "Madonna with Child."

Among the civil buildings, one of the most ancient and representative is the City-hall, built in the XIII century, and practically unchanged in its native medieval aspect. It guards various finds and objects of remarkable value, which all together are an important part of the historical memory of Stroncone and its territory.

In the Commonal Archive there are for instance two objects that belonged to the social and civil life of Stroncone. The first one is the Bossolo dei Priori, a quadrangular decorated box elegantly both inside and outside decorated. The second one is the Electoral urn, inside which were deposed the spheres that allowed to express the own vote.

Always in the centres of the Commune there are some Miniated Chorals, belonged to the community of San Benedetto and coming from the collegiate ones of San Michele Arcangelo and of San Nicolò. You can also admire: a collection of ancient coins, some documents of the XIII century and varied archaeological fragments coming from Trebula Suffenas, taught by some studious as the primitive installation of Roman origin.