Category: Umbria
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The megalithic walls of Alatri, where stone is timeless
The civita of Alatri stood on the slope of a hill above a stream, a branch of the Liri river. There, five hundred metres above the sea level, was the acropolis of the ancient city. Still visible are the quadrangular base of a small temple in Tuscan order, a reconstruction of which is now in […]
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Tempio civico dell’Incoronata and the symbolisms of Lodi
In Via Incoronata in Lodi, in the 15th century known as Contrada de’ Lomellini, there was a brothel. However, the intriguing aspect was not the common practice of erecting such places for the enjoyment of rich citizens, but rather that, just in front of a load-bearing wall facing the street, there was a crowned Madonna […]
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The Lunigiana stele statues
An anthropomorphic figure, which seems to have re-emerged from a forgotten and primitive age of man, stares at visitors with an enigmatic archaic smile. The statue, made of sandstone, has a semicircular head; its stylised face has a simple U-shape, but mysteriously takes on an expressiveness that transcends time, and seems to look into the […]
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The mysterious Christ in the labyrinth of Alatri
Alatri, 1997. During restoration work on a room adjacent to the cloister of Saint Francis church, some colours faded by time emerged from a narrow passage. The building was erected starting in 1220 and its adjoining convent dates back to 1359 [1]. Certainly the unexpected room, lost in the oblivion of time, was probably part […]
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The megalithic area of Saint-Martin-de-Corléans of Aosta
In the history of mankind there are certain places that have been called sacred by ancestors, and from that remote time they remain unchanged in their transcendent hierophany. These are cultic centres that hold testimonies of universal belonging, sometimes monumental traces of our past. They are material testimonies of a lost era, when rites were […]
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The Basilica of San Vittore and the Baptistery of Arsago Seprio
An ancient path led from Milan to Lake Maggiore. There, where the pre-Alpine slopes began to rise and the path was difficult due to the rugged terrain, was Arsago Seprio. This village in the Seprio countryside was of great importance in the Middle Ages cause it had housed a parish since the earliest days of […]
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Casamari Abbey, the sobriety of the Cistercians
The birth of the Ordo cisterciensis can be compared to a journey back to the origins of monasticism. Thus, when Robert of Molesme in 1098 decided to establish a new monastery at Cîteaux he felt the need to rediscover that profound sense of the sacred that had characterized the monks of the early centuries. The […]
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La Verna Sanctuary, there is not a more holy mountain
The Sanctuary of La Verna is not only a physical place, it is the witness of something that dwells in the soul, of a mystery that no man could explain. In its intimate silences, verdant woods, among rocks of mystical essence, St. Francis received the stigmata on September 14, 1224, as historiography attests [1]. On […]
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The town of San Quirico and the spiritual struggle of a pilgrim
The town of San Quirico stands out in the hills that mark the boundary between the Orcia and Asso valleys in Tuscany. These lands, shaped by verdant landscapes, still inspire suggestions of a distant and evocative past. There were echoes there of chivalric deeds, stonemasons at work, pilgrims dragging their weary steps over dusty paths, […]