History of Cerreto

CHIESA DI SAN PATERNIANO (St. Paterniano’s church)
The church we can see today is what remains of a XIV century Benedictine monastery. The current façade, however, seems to be older than the original Romanic façade, although the same portal was used. Inside the church, a XVII century fresco portraits S. Paterniano and the Madonna delle Grazie.

GESU’ E MARIA
The church founded by dr. Vincenzo Baronio is now a museum, displaying the mummies found in the crypt. There is also a teaching room wanted by the CEDRAV, Centre for Anthropological Research and Documentation in Valnerina and in the Apennines’s chain -Umbria Region.

PONTE
The name of this town means “bridge” and it is linked to an old Roman bridge. It belongs to the municipality of Cerreto, and it stands 540 m above the sea-level, on a conic rock on top of the Nera river, just in front of Cerreto. It was a longobard territory (“gastaldato”) set by king Lotarius II in 757 A.D. to limit the tyranny of Alboino duke of Spoleto. The territory included the Nera and Corno Valleys, over which the king had both military and economic jurisdiction.

The castle was on top of the hill. The borough extended along the mountain ridge. Pieve Santa Maria developed in the XII century along the old road, closer to the valley. It is well worth noting the “Domus Comunitatis Pontanae”, former municipal building whose portal is surmounted by an arch. In its lunette there is the coat of arms of the Ponte family, which consists of a threearched bridge with four big windows on top and three stars under each arch. The same emblem identifies the Pontano family, probably because Ponte itself was the birthplace of the family. The “gastaldato” of Ponte was important already in 748, when its territory included about 20 castles, as is proved by several documents. Like Cerreto, Ponte went through a period of uprisings but, unlike the nearby Ghibelline town, it remained faithful to the Pope. From 1389 to 1415 the Trinci family ruled over Ponte and in 1392 Pope Boniface IX appointed Ugolino Trinci vicar of Foligno, Bevagna, Montefalco, Valtopina and Rocca di Ponte. Between 1434 and 1447 Ponte and Cerreto were dominated in turn by captain Niccolò Piccinini and by Francesco Sforza and his companies. In1474, Ponte, Cerreto and Montesanto were under the protection of Giulio Cesare Varano. In 1502 Cesare Borgias annexed Ponte to the dukedom of Camerino and ruled over the enlarged dukedom. Certified documents prove that in 1712 nine churches of Ponte had been destroyed and subjugated by Pieve Santa Maria.

PIEVE SANTA MARIA
This ancient Romanesque parish church was built in 1201. It has a one-nave Latin cross plan ending with a semicircular apse. The transept is projecting. At the crossing of the wings there is a hemispheric dome. In the rectangular façade there is a window rose decorated with two lines of columns and inscribed in a Romanesque square, following the style used in the Umbria and Abruzzi regions. At the corners there are 4 symbols representing the 4 evangelists. Oddly enough, inside the church, on the
stones of the right wall, there is a draft of the window rose. Numerous works of art were kept in this church, but now only few of them are still here; the frescoes of the XIV, XV and XVI century in the apse and on the lateral walls are a sign of a century-long painting tradition. The baptismal font has the shape of a big cup. Made of a basalt monolith, it is in Romanesque style. Along the ancient road leading to Cascia there were two churches dedicated to St. Martin and St. Julian, protectors of the travellers, an indication of the importance of this road as a communicating route, at least until the High Middle Ages.

LO STIGLIO/LO
SCIGLIO/RUSTILIO MOUNTAIN (864 M)
The origin of this name is linked to the word “ciliare”, a verb of a Roman dialect coming from the Latin word “exilium”=to separate/divide.

The landscape is characterised by sessile oaks; forest trees and Mediterranean vegetation cover both sides of the mountain. “Campo dei Lupi” (wolves’ camp) is the name given to the place that the wolves, typical preda-tory animals of the Apennines, used as a shelter and a reproduction site. Today this is a natural reserve populated by roe deer. Along the mountainside goes the ancient but still viable road from Ponte to Nortosce, where a church dedicated to St. Paul was built in Roman times. Now only the external walls and the XII century apse are left.

To see in NORTOSCE:

At the foot of mount Pagliaro, Nortosce dominates the Corno Valley. It looks like a medieval borough developed around the XIV century church of St. Michael, mentioned by various documents, under the jurisdiction of Pieve di Ponte. The buildings which were not destroyed by the recent earthquake have been restored.

CHIESA DI SAN PIETRO (St. Peter’s church)
The original church was rebuilt in the XVI century. Inside this church there are a baptismal font and a wooden tabernacle of the XVI century. The main altar hosts a painting of the XVII century portraying the risen Christ. The paintings at the walls of the altar illustrate a Visitation (XVII century) and The Rosary (XVIII century.) Some XVI century frescoes portray the Virgin Mary and the Child, and the pillars are decorated by the images of St. Joseph, S.Apollonia, S. Rita and S. Mary Magdalene.

To see in ROCCHETTA:

The word is a diminutive of “rocca” (fortress) and it refers to a fortress that was once on top of the mountain. It was a castle on a hill, built on the way to Cascia, from where it dominated the Tissino valley. Documents prove that 125 families lived there. Their members were soldiers, but the wars they had to fight far from home, as well as family conflicts and earthquakes cut their number to 36. Rocchetta and Nortosce have always been part of the same community, and before the XVII century the former had not even had an autonomous chaplain. In Rocchetta there are three churches:

S. NICOLA: Romanesque church with graveyard. It is the oldest of the three churches. A cupola covers the presbytery, lunettes decorate the narrow portal and the bell tower of the façade has a dome vault. The apse dates back to the XIII century. Inside there are frescoes of 1529, on the right there is a representation of the town.

S. MARIA DEL VERDE: this votive building has a sloping roof, a stone portal and two square windows at shoulder level. Inside there are XV century frescoes and a XVII century altar-piece.

SAN GIACOMO: it is a parish church. Inside there are three stones: one is engraved with a Roman funeral epigraph in memory of one of Titus’s freedmen called Calvia di Stazio; the second stone is decorated with the emblem of Spoleto, the main Municipality, and the third stone has an inscription in Gothic style, probably the year 1435. The door of the gross baptismal font is decorated with a sculpture of the Baptism and on the stone it is possible to distinguish the name of the author and the year 1558. The XV century bell is decorated with the Annunciation. In the church there is a beautiful wooden Crucifix of the XV century which was formerly in the church of Madonna del Verde. The altars host the XVII century paintings of the Rosary, St. Anthony, St. James and S. Filippo Neri.

MADONNA DELLA STELLA
“ Madonna della Stella” (Madonna of the Star) is the relatively modern name of the Eremo Santa Croce, a beautiful hermitage in the municipality of Cerreto built thanks to the Agostinian hermits in 1308 on the rests of the ancient Benedictine monastery of St. Benedict in Francibus. The complex is made of about twenty hermitages nestled in the rock, with artificial walls completing the natural ones. The hermits depended from the church of Santa Croce. The one-nave building is in a linear style and leans against a rocky wall. The frescoes have been attributed to a painter of the Umbria region who lived in the XIV century. By tradition the sanctuary was open to the public from the first Sunday of May to the first Sunday of June, for the month consacrated to Mary, and processions of believers poured there from several towns of the municipality of Cerreto. They went there to worship a bloody stone that was said to be part of the ceiling of a cave from Affresco nella Chiesa di S. Nicola. where it had fallen and hit a pilgrim without killing him. In the Sanctuary there were also the clothes of miraculously healed people, as was usual in religious places. The last hermit who lived in Madonna della Stella is remembered by a tombstone under the rock where his corpse was found.

To see in TRIPONZO:

Triponzo (422 m above the sea-level) is located along the Valnerina highway (statale 209) to Visso, nestled in the rocky hill, at the point where the Corno and Nera rivers meet. The name comes from the three bridges (“tre ponti”) that crossed the rivers at their meeting point.
A high square tower dominates the town wall. The houses were between the above reef and the river. Here ran the Roman road built in the Republican era by the aediles, whose names were carved on the reef and are still visible today. The castle of Triponzo was involved in the history of Cerreto and was often claimed by Norcia. In 1425 the king Martin V gave it to the Republic of Norcia. In 1434 Triponzo, together with Cerreto, asked to be governed by the Sforza, but it was won back by captain Niccolò Piccinini and restored to Norcia. The Consuls of Norcia were very often forced to intervene in Triponzo since its strategic position made its castle an easy prey to the enemies. The decline of the castle started with the earthquake of 1703, after which only 135 inhabitants were spared. In Triponzo there were seven churches, but unluckily most of them do not exist any more.

CHIESA DI SANTA CATERINA (St. Catherine’s church)
It was built at the beginning of the XVIII century on the Terme di Triponzo. Ruins of a previous church, whose Renaissance portal (1543) is still visible. The façade has two candle-holder shaped pillars supporting a lintel; in the lintel there is a lunette with a coat of arms; the gable contained the wooden statue of St. Catherine. In the church there are highly valued paintings like the Madonna by Sassoferrato, a 1641 picture of St. Anthony of Our Lady of Sorrows and XVIII century paintings of St. Joseph, Our Lady of Sorrows and S.Francis from Paola.

MADONNA DEL CARMINE
Inside this church there is a Romanesque statue of the Madonna delle Grazie, from the former church of S. Maria de Clavaris, on the road leading to the spas of Triponzo.

SPAS OF TRIPONZO
On the left of the road that goes to Visso, less than 1 km far from Triponzo, there is an ancient arcade built in 1887 at the foot of mount Fergino, on the right bank of the Nera river. Here there are no less than seven springs coming out from caves covered with stalactites and concretions of sulphate and calcium carbonate with a high concentration of sulphuric acid. The water of the springs reaches 24°C and has a pressure of 8 l/sec. By the time of the Ancient Rome the spas were already known and they are currently being restored.

BALZA TAGLIATA
Balza Tagliata can only be reached on foot, walking along the old way to Norcia. Along the Corno Valley, in the Mesozoic limestone, the river created beautiful gorges and high cliffs. On the right slope there is a 730 m chasm.

To see in Cerreto di Spoleto:

MADONNA DI COSTANTINOPOLI
Documents prove that a chapel already existed in the XIII century and in 1580 the painting of a Madonna was found on a wall, but the church was only built in 1619 by Ortensio Comandini and it was recognised as patronage of the local community. In 1650 the church was enlarged and supplied with a bell. In 1667 the priests known as “Zoccolanti” (wanderers wearing clogs), belonging to the Friars Minor of St. Francis, settled here. It was them who built the altars and invited Fabio Angelucci di Mevale to paint the Madonna. The church is built in a linear style. It has a porch and on the portal there is the following inscription in Latin: “Venite – videte Reginam Vestram” (Come and see your Queen). Again in the XVII century, wooden baroque altars were added, together with a Byzantine painting showing a multitude of angels bringing in their hands the face of the Virgin crowned by God among the cherubs.
Two well-off families donated the altars of St. Anthony and S. Rocco. In 1652 Pope Innocence X suppressed the order of the Friars Minor and therefore many of the monks who lived in the monastery beside the church left, although somebody says that eighteen of them were still there in 1712. The monastery was then managed by the Capuchins until 1865, when, after the unification of Italy, with religious goods sold to private buyers, it was purchased by the Minnozzi earls. It is interesting to see the niches with the stations of the Cross all along the steep road to the monastery. Madonna di Costantinopoli.

to see in BUGIANO:

CHIESA DI SAN GIOVANNI BATTISTA (Church of St. John the Baptist)
The church is located on top of a hill, in the village called “small Bugiano”. The original settlement was probably Roman, then, before the castles were built, it became an agricultural centre, with the graveyard next to the church. The linear one-nave Romanesque church has a sloping roof and a gable on the façade. The tower bell has a dome vault and stands on one side of the apse. The XIV century portal is surmounted by an arch. Inside the apse the rests of some frescoes are still visible.

VIGI AND NERA VALLEYS
The narrow valley extends from the Marche region to Borgo Cerreto. It is mainly forested with oak trees
(“cerro”), with areas of black and white hornbeams and sessile oaks; in the remotest areas there are forest trees. The fario trout lives in the Vigi river, where several reproduction areas have been set. Moreover in Borgo Cerreto, on the Nera river, the provincial administration of Perugia set up a special area for the restocking of fario trouts. The area is completed by a laboratory called “Aula verde Valnerina” (Green Classroom - Valnerina). This is managed by the CEDRAV, the Centre for Anthropological Documentation and Research, operating in Valnerina and in the Apennines’ chain, and based at the former monastery of St. James in Cerreto di Spoleto (telefax 0743/922129). The activities carried out in this area can be directly followed, stage after stage, from the conception to the end of the reproduction cycle. In the fishing season, adult trouts are chosen to restock special areas indicated by the provincial administration of Perugia. Fishing “no-kill” is a popular sport along the Nera river and is regulated by Lega Ambiente on behalf of the provincial administration. Ruins of ancient castles are scattered on the left bank of the Nera river, along the Valnerina highway (statale 209) from Triponzo through Borgo to Galloro at the foot of the mountain, and up to Vallo di Nera and Terni. Among the ruins, there are galleries and parts of the old railway linking Spoleto to Norcia. This was one of the few examples of mountain railways, with narrow gauge and rails. It went up the slopes for 50 km and the traveller could thus enjoy the beauty of the landscape. The railway was finished by 1926, but in 1968 it was dismantled. Certainly it could have been an extraordinary tourist attraction today. Some parts of the old railway are now cycle or trekking paths.

MONTE MAGGIORE (1428 m)
The natural path of Monte Maggiore is of exceptional beauty. A road suitable for vehicles links Ponte del Piano to Macchia, a rural settlement at the foot of the mountain that can be reached by car from Meggiano. At both sides of the mountain there are trekking and horse paths. The flora, characterised by oak trees, sessile oak in particular, and hornbeams, is important not only for the beauty of the landscape but also for local water resources. The valleys are covered by forest trees, and the top of the mountain by crocuses. Local people used to live by growing crops and sheep, as is shown by such names as “casa del vergaro” (the house of the shephard) and “le saliere”, a group of 20/30 big stones where the shepherds used to put the salt for their sheep. The salt was a natural integrator for the goats’ diet, since grass contained a very limited quantity of it. Next to Macchia, along the rocky side of Monte
Maggiore, on the right of Valle Mela, there is a cavern known as “Grotta del Mezzofrate” or “Grotte del Frate” (see maps), the expression meaning Cavern of the Monkey, a reference to the hermits who lived here in the past.