Chiesa di Santa Cecilia

It is a very beautiful church !!!

A small Basilica, parish church of Acquasparta, among the various works in the larger chapel are located the tomb of Federico Cesi, founder of the academy's high school, where he also studied Galileo Galilei, and the statue of the Madonna della Stella, very dear to the inhabitants representation local.

Gorgeous

In inventory n ° 15, drawn up in 1774 and conserved in the archives of the bishop's curia of Todi, we read: "the church, which can now be seen raised in the order of Tuscan Architecture, according to the rules of Messer Iacopo Barozzio da Vignola , in its very ancient form, was renewed from foundation by the large limosine, and vigilance of the ecc.mo sig. Duke Cesi, of this ill.ma Community, and of the respective Confraternities of Acquasparta in the year of the Lord 1761 by the architect Pietro Fontana of Rome, as shown by the same plaque existing above the bell tower door ... In this order of architecture the Chapel of the Most Holy Crucifix was preserved intact in its ancient form, and its balustrade with iron gate. It was consecrated by Msgr. Francesco Maria Pasini of Rimini, being bishop of Todi, on the 22nd of May 1763. The anniversary of this consecration of the ancient church still practiced from time immemorial on 6 October is celebrated. " The Bishop's Chancellor of Todi Bonaventura Pianegiani, in one of his manuscripts of 1867, the result of "careful research", tells us: "This church, of its consecration boasts a very remote era, and that in the Diocese (Todi ) there was no other older church dating back to the time when the Church of S. Carlo was consecrated within the city of Todi. Before the 1761 restoration, it was in the form of an ancient semi-Gothic basilica with three naves consisting of travertine columns, with a stone facade and ornaments, a large eye and a cornice also in Gothic style, adorned with frescoes of very ancient style, which from the last dispositions they presented, changes were known in two different epochs ". Furthermore, during the works for the installation of the heating system, in the mid-1970s, below the presbytery, walls and stones were found, photographed, certainly prior to the eleventh century. These findings make plausible Pianegiani's assertion of the antiquity of the presence of a place of worship within Acquasparta and the hypothesis of the formation of a Christian community from the first centuries of the Christian era. Hypothesis supported by the strong Christian signs along the old Flaminia, such as the Catacombs of Villa S. Faustino (Massa Martana) and the Church of Santi Cosma e Damiano in Carsulae. Inside there are eight chapels and in them, until the beginning of the twentieth century, there were seven altars and, in the one located at the left entrance, a baptistery from 1575. The remaining altars are dedicated to Saints Nicola, Barbara and Restituta (second chapel at the entrance on the left), to the Most Holy Crucifix (funeral chapel of the noble Liviani - Cesi families), altar of the Madonna del Rosario (third chapel at the entrance of left). In the center of the apse, under the triumphal arch, the main altar dedicated to St. Cecilia Virgin and Martyr, main patron of the parish and of the city of Acquasparta. At the center of the triumphal arch, supported by two Angels, the coat of arms of the ecc.ma Cesi family, from the 16th century lords of these lands and benefactors of the Collegiate Church of S. Cecilia until the beginning of the 19th century.

A wonderful reality