THE CHURCH OF SAN MARCO

THE HISTORY
In the name of the Father, amen. This church was consecrated on the first day of December of the year 1198 by his Holiness Pope Innocence III. Fifteen cardinals officiated alongside him and the Pope himself established the indulgence of the church for three occasions a year which are referred to in the Consecration. These are the day dedicated to Saint Benedict The Abbot, the day consecrated to Saint Mark the Evangelist after whom the church is named and on the eighth day immediately after the same festivities. One hundred years and another forty days, according to the will and invention of the Pope, making a total of twenty years plus twenty times forty days in the single days of the octave of these feasts. This work was carried out during the time of the venerable padre Rollando, the Abbot of San Salvatore of Mount Amiata and of the provostship of ser Giacomo di Nicola Mosti of Viterbo. The architectonic construction of the church of San Marco corresponds to that of a simple rural building which provides daily services for the peasant community which worked on the land administered, first of all by the Benedictine monks, and then by the Cistercians of the Amiata Abbey of San Salvatore ( It belonged to the Monastery along with the churches of San Giovanni in Sonsa and Santa Maria Maddalena until the middle of the XVII century.) The plaque on the façade to the right of the main door (and transcribed again inside the church by the entrance), gives a brief history of this small ancient church which, despite its size, boasts the privilege of having been personally consecrated by a Pope. This epigraph on peperino stone might even have been in situ since the building of the church. It stands in one of the oldest quarters in Viterbo called Pian di San Marco which used to stretch out as far as the hill of San Francesco, beyond the first city wall. It was crossed by the Sonsa or Urcionio stream which today is completely covered over. Relations between the Monks of Amiata, the consuls and the secular clergy of the town were always difficult, particularly when dealing with the claims to emphyteutic rights and the so-called ‘rights of the stole’ (funerals, weddings, …). But one position of considerable authoritativeness was gained by the Monks of Amiata starting from the Cistercian Rolando, with the help of Pope Innocence III who confirmed his friendship and preference for him, with the creation good relations with the influential San Salvatore abbots to assist the ambitious project of instituting his temporal rule over the immense estate of Countess Matilde of Canossa which had been donated to the church. The clergy of Viterbo was legally nominated as administrators of the ancient parish only in 1782 when the Grand Duke Leopold II suppressed the Abbey of Amiata. The ravages of war, which devastated the area surrounding the church of San Marco were kind with the actual building with only the roof suffering slight damage. However four altar cloths that decorated the walls were lost. These were the Death of St Alessio which was placed on the altar of the saint in Cornu Epistolae in 1727, the canvas painted by the Viterbian artist Domenico Costa in 1850 portraying the Madonna showing the Stabbed Heart, and the two portraying the Saviour and St Ombono, the protector of tailors) which had come from the suppressed Tailors’ Guild Oratory in the nearby piazzetta dell’Oca. The church of San Marco was built at the end of the XII century by the Benedictine Monks of San Salvatore from Mount Amiata who owned the site. Its attractive medieval appearance is still evident today in the simplicity of this small rural building with only one nave.

THE EXTERIOR
The facade of church of San Marco wasn’t damaged from the bombings of 2^nd world war. The facade forebodes same orders of ashlars in peperino stone. There is only a XVI century portal to the church which is reached by a steep staircase, originally built to protect the church from the overflow of the nearby Urciono stream. On the facade, an epigraph on a plaque of peperino stone engraved in beautiful uncial gothic letters celebrates the consecration of the church in 1198, just at the time when Pope Innocence III was putting the plan of re-conquering the lands belonging to Saint Peter’s Patrimony into action, an event which was also influenced by the fact that Viterbo had been confirmed as a Diocesan See.

THE INTERIOR
Despite the passing of time, some precious artistic works can still be found inside the church. On the left-hand wall we can see remnants of a fresco portraying the Madonna enthroned with Child and Angels (1), a modest work of art which is attributed to the school of Antonio del Massaro, also known as the Pastura (XV century), but which in reality follows the methods used by the Siena Maestros in the ambience of Viterbo. The frescoes portraying the Benedictory Eternal between the Saints Peter and Paul (2) are of better quality. These were painted in the apsidal conch at the beginning of the sixteenth century by the remarkable Maestro Giovan Francesco d’Avanzarano of Viterbo, also known as the Fantastico. He also created the altarpiece (3) portraying the Madonna enthroned between St Mark and St Bernard the Abbot and was finished on the 15^th April 1512, as proven by the date on the bottom. On the posts of this complex machine we can see the figures of the Saints Peter, John the Baptist, Mary Magdalene, Paul, Albert, and Helen while on the predella four episodes of St Mark’s life are represented. From the left we can see St Peter approving the writings of St. Mark; the preaching of St. Mark, the Capture and the Martyr of the Saint. The altarpiece was commissioned on 20^th February 1511 by Marco Anselmo Falloni and Bernardino Tornari, sacristan of the church. On the right-hand apsidal wall underneath one of the two stone tabernacles there is a charcoal sketch (protected by glass) of a female head (4) by Giovan Francesco. The artist’s remarkable gift is confirmed in the uninhibited freshness of this picture, which had lead him to work together with the young Raffaello and Luca Signorelli in Palazzo Bufalini in Città di Castello. D’Avanzarano, together with Truffetta and Costantino Zelli, belongs to the ranks of the artists from the Viterbian school who enjoyed considerable success in painting along with Maestros from the middle of the fifteenth century such as Francesco d’Antonio also known as “the Balletta” and Antonio del Massaro known as “the Pastura”. It is the Balletta who painted the tablet portraying St. Mark (5) which used to stand on the small altar on the left but which is now being carefully looked after in the presbytery next door.

ESSENTIAL BIBLIOGRAPHY

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Italo Faldi, Mostra di restauri, in “L’arte nel viterbese”, Viterbo, 1965.
Italo Faldi, Museo Civico di Viterbo. Dipinti e sculture dal Medioevo al XVIII secolo, Viterbo, 1955.
Italo Faldi, Pittori viterbesi di cinque secoli, Roma, 1970.
Italo Faldi, Restauri acquisti e acquisizioni al patrimonio artistico di Viterbo, catalogo, Viterbo, Palazzo dei Priori, 1972.
Augusto Gargana, Viterbo. Itinerario di Augusto Gargana, Viterbo, 1939.
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A. Muñoz, Uno sguardo al nuovo Museo Civico di Viterbo, in “Per l’inaugurazione del Museo Civico di Viterbo”, Viterbo, Agnesotti, 1912, pp. 33-     45.
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Cesare Pinzi, I principali monumenti di Viterbo. Guida pel visitatore, Viterbo, Agnesotti, 1911.Cesare Pinzi, Storia della città di Viterbo, voll. I-III, Roma, 1887/89, vol. IV, Viterbo, Agnesotti, 1913.
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Giuseppe Signorelli, Viterbo nella storia della Chiesa, Viterbo, 1907-1969.
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Simona Valtieri, La genesi umana di Viterbo, Roma, 1977.

Carosi Attilio, Il monastero di S. Salvatore del Monte Amiata e le sue chiese in Viterbo: S. Giovanni in Sonsa, S. Maria Maddalena, S. Marco, S. Maria delle Rose, Viterbo 2000.

Pinzi Cesare, Guida dei principali monumenti di Viterbo, Roma 1889.