The Church of the Saints Francis from Paola and Peter of Alcantara is located along Via Andrea Costa, an annex to the grounds of Villa Favorita.
History
The church was built in 1700 as the oratory of the splendid villa of the Barons Danzetta, known as the Favorita, externally decorated with wall paintings by the painter Mariano Piervittori (1816-1888).
The sacred building is dedicated to two saints whose testimony and religious experience is marked by a simple and humble lifestyle of penance and austerity of life:
Saint Peter of Alcantara (1499-1562),Spanishpriest, founder of the Order of DiscalcedFriars Minor (known as Alcantarins).
Since 1933 the church and the villa have been owned by the Bianchi family.
Description
Exterior
The church, built in bricks, has a rectangular façade ending with a moulded cornice and underlined laterally by two pilasters, slightly projecting; it has a central portal, surmounted by an oculus and flanked by two quadrangular windows.
At the top of the façade,
under the cornice, there are four terracotta tilesthat date the building: ‘1700’.
Interior
The interior of the church has a rectangular plan with a single nave with a horizontal frame at the top and a barrel-vaulted roof articulated by splays.
The back wall, which had – above the altar – a painting attributed to Francesco Appiani (1704-1792) depicting the two titular saints, has two small windows at the top through which the liturgical hall could be seen from the service rooms above the sacristy (not accessible).
Inside, leaning against the right wall, is the:
Funerary monument to Baron Pompeo Danzetta (1848), in polychrome stucco, made by Umbrian craftsmen: the work is divided into three overlapping parts:
at the top, Portrait of the deceased placed between two flags and weapons (rifle and sword), decussed, indicating his military dignity;
in the centre, memorial epigraph of the young man who died at the age of about 25 in the battle of Cornuda, which took place between 8 and 9 May 1848, during the first war of independence;
below, celebratory inscription reminding him as the first Perugian to die for the Unification of Italy, affixed by his brothers, all patriots, including Nicola Danzetta (1820-1895), the first mayor of Perugia and member of the Italian Parliament, one of the most prominent exponents of the Risorgimento in Umbria.
Furthermore, along the walls there is a valuable cycle of paintings, made of paper applied on canvas, datable to the first quarter of the twentieth century, from central Italy, depicting the Stations of the Cross : the subjects are clearly inspired by works of famous Renaissance artists.
