Chiesa di San Lazzaro al Valloncello

Background In front of the Castle of Belforte, deserted and in ruins, on the right, there is a narrow valley, which was named "Valloncello": this valley, crossed by a stream of water, creeps between the mountains, closed by high and steep walls, until they cease among the rugged rocks where a waterfall is formed, called “lu Cuniuntu”. Where the Valloncello expands to the Valle del Nera, local tradition has it that St. Francis erected "a house" where those affected by leprosy were welcomed, thus leaving humanity with a message of hope and life, directed at those people who remained infected, they were forced to leave the company. The origins of the leper colony, of which some parts are still visible in the town of San Lazzaro al Valloncello, probably date back to 24 September 1218. On this date a certain Razzardo di Roccapazza donated a large area of ​​land, part cultivated and part to pasture, for erect a church and a hospital for the lepers, reserving the right to graze his cattle. The spread of the Franciscan ideology probably influenced the donation and the decision of the Roccapazza massari to contribute to the construction of the hospital. Instead, the local tradition wants the same San Francesco as the founder of the lazaretto. From a parchment of the Municipal Archive of Norcia of 1342 some news are obtained regarding the hospital: the patients had the possibility of living with their families and the only limitation imposed on the lepers was that they could no longer leave the lazaret. An ancient privilege gave the superiors of the hospital the authority to have the leprosy patients of the dioceses of Spoleto, Camerino and Ascoli admitted, even if their relatives opposed it. This privilege was reconfirmed by Eugene IV in 1432. It is believed that the location of the leper colony is related to the natural isolation of the place and to the presence of sulfur springs, which at that time had to flow into the area and that subsequently, due to earthquakes, they dried up. The Church of San Lazzaro al Valloncello and the hospital for lepers were entrusted in 1218 to the monks of the Abbey of Sant 'Eutizio; in the sec. XIV to the friars minor; in 1572 to the order of the SS. Maurizio and Lazzaro gave it to his knights in commendation. Around the 1850s the property passed to the Sorbello family, which in 1914, an act signed by Ruggero Borbon Sorbello, who on the death of Donna Altavilla Ranieri (in 1914) sold it to the Betti Massi family of Poggio di Croce and to the Betti di Belforte, to be transformed a little later into a private housing complex and agricultural shed.

Beautiful church in a particular environment and with important history

It is an easily accessible, private and suggestive place