Chiesa di Santa Restituta

The church is usually closed; However, Mass is celebrated on the occasion of Our Lady of Carmel (July 16) Santa Restituta is a small Roman Catholic church, once annexed to a Clarissan convent in the city of Narni Usually closed, however, Mass is celebrated on the occasion of the Madonna del Carmelo on July 16. According to information taken from a printed pamphlet of 1619 written by Bernardino Rovinaglia and published in Viterbo, Eroli (1898, pp 335-340) informs us of how the monastery was built thanks to the Franciscan nun Eusebia Borghese of Siena. The nun, who settled from Siena (her hometown) in Rome, was persuaded by the noble narnese Paolo Orsini to stop with her sisters in Narni. The bishop of Narni and future cardinal Pierdonato Cesi in 1563 granted her the ancient parish church of Santa Restituta near which the monastery of the new Poor Clares was built. The monastery and the church were completed in the early seventeenth century thanks to the patronage of the Marquis Paolo Emilio Cesi who also had the high altar built and commissioned the beautiful painting by Cavalier d'Arpino depicting the Visitation "which cost him 400 d 'shields. gold "(ibid, p.337) The altar, of Roman origin, is made of polychrome marble and ends with a round tympanum supported by carved shelves and two porphyry columns. It is dedicated to Mary's visitation to her cousin Elizabeth and features a canvas painting with the same iconographic theme dated 1603. At his side were added two paintings by Gaetano Sortini depicting San Francesco and Santa Chiara, works made in 1765. On the left wall is the altar of Santa Restituta with its altarpiece that portrays her in the extreme act of beheading while the right altar, dedicated to Santa Filomena, is lost. In the church the Virgin Mary is particularly venerated with the title of Madonna del Carmine.