Chiesa di Santa Maria della Rupe (ex San Michele)

A magical place, of extreme charm! deserves to be seen. . CHURCH OF SANTA MARIA DELLA RUPE The only documentary information of this church discovered in 1979 during an excursion by the UTEC speleological group of Narni, is found in an eighteenth-century manuscript and in two notarial deeds contained therein from which we learn that in the mid-fourteenth century, it was used which chapter house annexed to the Dominican convent above. The chronological analysis based on the study of the internal decorations, together with the study of the structures identified by archaeological surveys, highlighted three historically well-defined phases. The first period is traced back to the time of construction of the church datable between the 12th and 13th centuries, when it was partly built inside a natural cavity next to a Roman cistern, probably in a place of a previous chapel of Lombard age, since the cult di San Michele is widespread thanks to this population which had its own grand duchy in the nearby territory of Spoleto. The second period sees the construction of the convent by the Dominicans in the fourteenth century and the incorporation of the church complex itself, the construction of a new floor above the previous one and the construction of a masonry seat on the side walls characterized by a clip-on band, to indicate the places reserved for monks. The third phase, dating back to the period between the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and constructively from the laying of a new floor level that covers the masonry bench, ends with the loss of its original function by the church: probably during the invasion the room is divided in half by a transverse wall transforming the apse area in the basement. The area occupied by the Church of Santa Maria della Rupe, which is accessed via a staircase that divides from the green space of the gardens of San Bernardo, therefore constitutes a significant part of the larger architectural complex consisting of the church of San Domenico and the adjoining Convent of the Dominicans. It consists of a first rectangular apsed room (the Church of Santa Maria della Rupe) covered by an irregular pointed arch and decorated with precious frescoes. It is connected to it through a hole of small dimensions realized in the long boundary wall, an adjacent space, parallel to the first room, a rectangular plan covered by a round and tripartite barrel vault with three unloading arches. In this environment, at the wall on the border of the church, the remains of the Roman cistern can be traced. Through a narrow corridor always turned and placed orthogonally with respect to the two rooms, one enters a third room, significantly higher than the other two, covered by a cross vault and called the "Room of the Inquisition"; in the middle of the side wall of the space story opens a low door that leads into a very small room, identified as a prison cell, equipped with a window and covered with numerous graffiti.

The church is actually underground, very suggestive and can be visited through Narni Sotterranea, it's not that of the photos anyway.