THE CHURCH OF SANTA MARIA NUOVA

THE HISTORY
The origins regarding the construction of the church of Santa Maria Nova date back to the XI century when a priest Biterbo with his brother Leone, his mother Sassa and Carabona, Leone’s wife, donate the church to the Bishop Giselberto of Tuscania. The act is reported on a marble stone inside the church. The complex of the church with the annexed hospital was already operating around the mid of XI century and it is located along an important axis in the development of the town, represented by the main Etruscan-Roman route currently along the roads of S. Lorenzo and Cardinal La Fontaine. The handed down tradition of a sermon in 1266 by St. Thomas Aquinas who preached from a pulpit placed outside the building is testimony to the notable prestige this church has taken on in the social fabric of the town. This, in fact was the location where council meetings were held (the City Hall was not yet in existence) and where the boxes were kept that held the town hall’s important documents.  The political life of the Town Hall was carried out between the church walls, until at least 1574. In modern times the reconstruction works, both inside and outside the church were many and, often, very radical: the apses that conclude the two side aisles are work of twentieth century restorers, they substituted two chapels, the one on the left, dedicated to the Saviour, built in an unrecorded period of the XVI century; the one on the right was built in the mid eighteenth century by the Spadenzi family, and subsequently replaced under the patronage of the Zazzera family. It was, however, in the nineteenth century that the church of St. Maria experienced more serious intervention work: in 1808 the walls were painted; in 1822 the vaults were built removing the view of the XIV century trusses and the floor level was raised; in 1826 the façade was also painted and the altars were built that blocked part of the aisles and the imposing main altar. Other intervention works since 1960 have enabled the crypt and cloister to be recovered. St. Maria Nuova was the only church not to be destroyed in the bombings of 1944.

THE EXTERIOR
The current aspect of the church was restored once the main restoration work was carried out in 1911. The external surface was cleared from the plaster and the structure with sloping roof, characteristic of the years between the XII and the XIII century, was given back to the façade. The portals, opened in the nineteenth century to the sides of the central one, were plugged. Another portal on the left-hand wall, which had been walled-up in the nineteenth century, was furthermore restored. The restoration work has, furthermore, demonstrated a function not only ornamental for the numerous classical fragments inserted into the stonework, especially for the superb relief located at the highest point of the main portal and traditionally believed to be a Roman portrait of Jove. On the left corner there is the pulpit, from which it is said that in 1266 S. Thomas Aquinas exhorted peace with the inhabitants of Orvieto. The other side of the church is flanked with the medieval cloister, improperly defined Lombard, recovered in the 1960’s. The design of the side opposite the entrance is quite different, made up of three ample Romanesque round arches resting on pillars supported on a wall.

THE INTERIOR
The church centres around three aisles. In each of the aisles there are three small single-lancet windows while there are bigger windows, three on each side, in the central nave.  The ceiling is an open timber structure. The rich painted decoration of the beams and of the terracotta tiles was carried out between 1460 and 1490. The Via Crucis in terracotta placed on the walls was painted in 1961 by Domenico Mastroianni. Starting from the entrance on the right, one notes (1) the holy water stoup supported on a column with a capital in Romanesque (twelfth century) style. There are some memorial stones with coats of arms, decorations, tomb stones from various centuries which were once embedded in the floor, and part of a gothic arch of unknown provenance. We can see (2) a marble memorial stone from the twelfth century, which reproduces the deeds of the church under the seal of a notary from 1080, the original, on parchment, is in the historical archives of the Town Hall in the Ardenti Library. A bust (1823) (3) by Pietro Tenerani, commemorates the scholar and poet Orazio Carnevalini. A large tempera painting (4) of the Monaldo Trofi school, depicts the Madonna Lactans between Saints Bartholomew and Lawrence (15^th-16^th century). In the first of the recesses in the right aisle there is (5) a fresco (15^th century) attributed to Francesco D’Antonio Zacchi known as ‘Il Balletta, showing a Crucifixion with Madonna, St. Giovanni and St. Ambrose who is commending a cleric. On lateral uprights the Saints Catherine of Alessandria and Barbara are depicted. Below the arch, in seven circular medallions appear Christ Blessing among the Saints Lawrence, Paul, John the Baptist, the Archangel Michael, Peter, and Steven. Another (6) Crucifixion with the Madonna, St. John, St. Barbara and St. Nicholas and Donor at the feet of the Cross appears in the second recess. The family coat of arms appears on the lower edge of the painting – a silver band on a red background – and an inscription with the name of the prestigious personage: HIC REQUIESCIT D.NUS MONALDUS FORTIGUERRA DE VITERB.SUB A. D. MCCLXXXXIII M.AG. D. X. On the uprights the coats of arms and the pictures of the two saints. The fresco is attributed to the Tuscan school (end 13^th century). Through the door that leads into the sacristy, where a roof tile is displayed (7), which was formerly in the ceiling of the church, on which a ploughing scene is represented referring to the Ars Bubulcorum patron of the church, there is a marble ciborium of the sixteenth century (8). On the side altar to the right there is a painting (9) Madonna enthroned with Child and Angels (15^th century) by an unknown artist. In a niche in the central apse there is (10) a ciborium (12^th century); above this we can see a large Crucifixion modelled in 1966 by C. Canestrari, and in front is (11) the altar, made from a monolithic block (also 12^th century), with a fenestella confessionis, to allow the relics preserved inside to be seen. Also by Canestrari is the noteworthy (12) balustrade in bronze depicting The Last Supper (1964). The presbytery leads to the narrow crypt by way of two steep stairways. This is ambulatory in style in a semicircle that meanders around three squat pillars, and is what remains of the old building of the church, dated to the eleventh century. The baptismal font is situated here. It was created in 1961 by the De Alexandris. On the left side altar we can see the esteemed triptych (13) on leather of the Roman school of the thirteenth century showing the Holy Saviour between the Madonna and St. John. On the rear appear St. Michael the Archangel, St. Paul and St. Peter. According to tradition, the painting was discovered, amazingly, in 1283 in a box buried in a field. During ploughing work, the oxen that were pulling the plough fell to their knees when the plough struck something and they refused to continue, until the place was dug, bringing the box to the surface. The discovery was considered miraculous by the inhabitants and the icon was brought in procession to the Church of Arte dei Bifolchi; the event is commemorated every year with a procession that goes along the streets of the old quarter, accompanying a copy of the painting of the Saviour placed on a cart pulled by oxen. To the side, there is a niche in peperino stone (14), with a Pietà (1958) by Canestrari, who is buried there. Proceeding further down we can find the remains of some frescoes of the fourteenth century. The fragmented (15) remains enabled the theme represented to be adequately read: the Virgin Enthroned between four Saints, and the underlying inscription: S(anctus) ANT(onius) ABB(a)S – S(anctus) AL(e)X(ander) M(agnus) HE(remita) – [imago glorio]SE V(ir)GIN(is) MARIE D(omi)NE N(ost)RE – S(anctus) ANACL(etus) – S(anctus) [se]RAPION ABB(a)S. Of great interest are the portraits of the clients, Raniero del Cardinale and Lucio di Pietro and the Carta Depicta with an abstract of their will. In the subsequent chapel (16) the Madonna Enthroned with Child, St. John the Baptist, the kneeling purchaser, and a Christ carrying the cross are painted. An unidentified saint and a holy Bishop appear on the lateral uprights, while the intrados there is a Christ Benedictory with the portraits of saints on the sides, inscribed in painted clypeuses. The fresco shows links with the Gothic culture of Sienese influence by Bartolo di Fredi or Luca di Tommè. In the subsequent recess, restored between 2002 and 2003, another Crucifixion with St. John the Baptist, the Virgin, St. John the Evangelist, St . James the Elder and the Magdalene (17) is painted; on the sides appear two scenes with Angels appearing to two Saints, while in the intrados of the arch are painted Christ Benedictory with portraits of saints on the sides. The painting dates back to the first half of the fourteenth century and shows influences by Simone Martini and the Lorenzettis, and is linked to the figure of Matteo Giovannetti workshop. The fresco (18) on the left wall in the first chapel shows ST Jerome between the Saints John the Baptist and Lawrence, and donor and dates back to the beginning of the sixteenth century. The painting work is ascribed to the figure of Antonio del Massaro, known as the Pastura and his school, and shows the influences of the school of Pietro Perugino, Antoniazzo Romano, Pier Matteo d’Amelia, very popular in the Viterbian area.

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