Calvi dell'Umbria

Located to the extreme south of Umbria, Calvi has deserved the appellative of Porta Felice (happy door). It rises at the base of the Mount St. Pancrazio at around 400 meters altitude, surrounded from woods and from the cultivations of vine and olive-trees. Its origins are ancient, dated back to the age of the bronze, while some finds individualized on the peak of the Mount St. Pancrazio postpone temples and buildings of cult to pre-Romans age. The Ara Funeraria di C.Decimus Priscus belongs the Roman period founded in the proximity of Calvi and set to the entry of the village, represents animal and floral motives.

Among the peculiar characteristics it has an artistic vocation the art of Crib composing. The most famous is guarded in the Church of Sant'Antonio Abate, on the Piazza Maggiore, realised in 1545 by two brothers from Abruzzi, Giacomo and Raffaele da Montereale. It's a monumental work, constituted by around thirty characters in earthenware, some of which, those in the foreground, to natural greatness, for a very suggestive general effect. The tradition of the crib in Calvi it is very alive, and it manifests especially in the murales, the real works inspired to the Nativity, full of colours and expression, painted on the walls of the houses along the city streets.

A summary of the historical, artistic and cultural life of the city of Calvi can be found in the Museum of Palazzo Ferrini, in nuns Ursoline's ex convent. Among the a lot of preserved objects of value can be found a splendid "Immaculate Conception" of the Masucci, "The Martyrdom of Sant'Andrea" and one "Pentecoste", work of the '500 attributed to Rinaldo da Calvi, local painter that frescoed numerous churches. One of his best works, the "the Madonna's Crowning", can be observed at Stroncone in the Church of St. Nicolò.