| Visso | ||
 | ||
| State | Italy | |
|---|---|---|
| Region | Marche | |
| Territory | Upper Nera valley | |
| Altitude | 607 m a.s.l. m a.s.l. | |
| Surface | 100.4 km² km² | |
| Inhabitants | 1 103 (28-2-2017) | |
| Name inhabitants | Vissani | |
| Prefix tel | 0737 | |
| POSTAL CODE | 62039 | |
| Time zone | UTC 1 | |
| Patron | St. John Baptist | |
Position
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| Institutional website | ||
Visso is a city in the region Marche, known as the pearl of the Sibillini
 | ATTENTION: THE earthquakes that on 24 August, 26 and 30 October 2016 they hit the area of Central Italy and caused damage or collapses to many buildings. The historic center has had injuries. |
To know
The municipal territory is located in a basin of the upper valley of the Nera river and is located at the confluence of five valleys (and as many watercourses), it is surrounded by mountains with steep and wooded slopes and gentle meadow / pasture peaks; the altitude of the territory is between about 600 meters at the bottom of the valley and 1800 meters at Monte Cardosa.
Background
Regarding the origins of the town and its name, there are legendary reports relating to the existence of a pre-Roman village called Vicus Elacensis (respectable village).
After the year 1000, the surrounding populations gave life to the first urban agglomeration indicated with the name of Visse, where the Rocca was built in the 13th century. the ruin of Visso, due to plagues, floods and looting by venture companies. The economic recovery that follows - due to Visso's strategic position in commercial traffic between Rome, Spoleto and the Marches - allows for the construction of the Renaissance buildings that we still see today; craftsmanship and sheep farming will then bring prosperity to the village. In 1828 Visso was awarded the name and prerogatives of the city by the Papal Legate and in 1860 the town was detached from Umbria and assigned to the Marche.
How to orient yourself
Visso: full screen map.How to get
How to get around
What see
Collegiate Church of Santa Maria in 2008
- 1 Collegiate Church of Santa Maria, piazza Martiri Vissani, Visso, ☎ 39 0737 969118, @[email protected]. The collegiate church of Santa Maria is the main religious building in Visso. The current building, in Gothic style with Umbrian influence, was built in 1256 on a previous Romanesque church. On the left side of the church stands the elegant Gothic-Umbrian bell tower with mullioned windows and three-mullioned windows. The right, southern side, which overlooks the central square of Visso, serves as the main entrance and has a Romanesque portal with the fresco of the Annunciation painted in 1444 by Paolo da Visso in the lunette.
- The interior with a single nave, transformed in the 1600s, still preserves several frescoes from the Umbrian-Marche school of the fourteenth century, including a San Cristoforo, over 7 meters high. There is also the 13th-century wooden group of the Madonna and Child, in a niche are works by Giovanni Di Pietro known as Lo Spagna. The baroque wooden ceiling was finished in 1743 and bears paintings by Giuseppe Manzoni. The organ, on the left wall, is a work by Giovanni Fedeli da Camerino, dated 1759. In the Romanesque Chapel of the Baptistery there are remains of the original parish church, dating back to the 12th century: capitals, reliefs, a holy water stoup and a baptismal font. Furthermore you can admire the sarcophagi of the blessed Niccolò Siciliano and of Meo da Visso. Inside the Collegiate there is the tomb of the Mancini family. According to a legend, one of Judas' 30 denarii is kept in the sacristy.
- Following the 2016 earthquake, the church is unusable and at risk of collapse
- Church of S. Agostino, square of the Martyrs Vissani, Visso. The church of Sant'Agostino was built in the Gothic style in the 14th century and has a facade with an ogival portal with a triple row of columns and a refined rose window.
- Inside there was a painting by Giovanni di Pietro, known as Spain who, when the church was closed for worship in 1868, was placed in the Collegiate Church of Santa Maria.
- Today the church is deconsecrated and inside it has a single nave, since 1972 the civic and diocesan Museum-Art Gallery, inaugurated in 1983, has been housed. The approximately 200 works on display, including sculptures, paintings, furnishings and parts of frescoes, dating back to between XII and XVIII century (such as the 12th century Madonna di Mevale and the 15th century Madonna di Macereto) tell the civil and religious history of Visso.
- Here it is also possible to admire the Museum of Leopardian manuscripts, with 27 autographed manuscripts by Giacomo Leopardi. The collection includes: five sonnets, fourteen letters written between 1825 and 1831, a commentary on Francesco Petrarca's "Rhymes" and six Idylls, including the most famous the "Infinite".
- Following the violent earthquakes of September 26, 1997, the church suffered numerous and serious damages with injuries and multiple openings on the whole structure to the point that, in 1999, a restoration and restoration project was approved by the Conference of Services of the damaged parts that have allowed the church to be restored to its former glory.
- Church of S. Francesco, piazza S. Francesco, Visso. The Church and the Convent of San Francesco were built towards the end of the fourteenth century in Romanesque-Gothic style on what was originally a church of 1216 dedicated to San Biagio. The bell tower was obtained from a defensive tower built in the thirteenth century.
- The façade has an ogival portal surmounted by a large rose window made up of small smooth and twisted columns and capitals with floral motifs.
- Following a violent flood of 1858 which poured mud and debris that invaded the church and the surrounding houses, Pius IX had two walls built to stem the Ussita and Nera rivers. This work required the shortening of the church by 10 meters, the main façade and the side portal were dismantled and rebuilt, raising them by 1.50 meters.
- The interior of the church has a single nave with a presbytery delimited by a large ogival arch. Leaning against the walls you can admire four altars in carved and gilded wood on which four altars depicting St. Anthony of Padua, St. Francis, the Baptism of Christ and the Madonna delle Rose stand out.
- The main altar is dominated by a large wooden tabernacle carved in the shape of a small temple from the 1600s. A wooden choir, an organ from the 1700s placed in the center of the choir and a choir with a parapet decorated with floral motifs complete the church's equipment.
- Following the violent earthquakes that occurred in 1997, the church suffered extensive and considerable damage to the entire structure. On 27 August 1999, a project for the restoration and restoration of the damaged parts was approved by the Services Conference, which allowed the church to be restored to its former glory and a fresco representing a Crucifixion was found.
- 2 Sanctuary of Macereto, S.P. of Macereto, Visso, ☎ 39 0737 9264, @[email protected]. The Sanctuary of Macereto is a religious complex that stands on a plateau on the western side of the Sibillini Mountains a few kilometers from Visso, about 1,000 meters away. above sea level on the place where, according to tradition, on 12 August 1359 a mule carrying a simulacrum of the Madonna from Ancona to the Kingdom of Naples knelt here and did not want to leave again.
- Some passers-by, rushed to lend their help, saw a divine sign in what had happened and demanded that a small church be built here that could house the image of the Madonna.
- The primitive chapel was then built on an ancient Lauretan itinerary that pilgrims from Abruzzo and Sabina traveled to reach the Sanctuary of Loreto.
- In 1529 the community of Visso commissioned Lombard masters who worked in Umbria to build a larger church that could contain the old chapel and the works began, which ended in 1556.
- The Sanctuary, all covered in travertine, has an octagonal plan with three foreparts on which there are as many portals facing Visso, Ussita and Cupi, richly carved and embellished with bas-reliefs and columns with Corinthian capitals that give access to the interior.
- The main facade has a round window with a serrated frame and a conch portal with bas-reliefs.
- At the center of the church it is possible to admire the primitive chapel which has two portals with classical elements and inside there is a gilded wooden altar of the sixteenth century and a copy of the statue of the Madonna of the 1400s whose original is now preserved in the Pinacoteca di Visso Museum ( set up inside the Church of Sant'Agostino).
- In the apse that contains the main altar there are valuable stuccos, statues and some works by Simone de Magistris, made between 1580 and 1582.
- On the main altar made in 1924 in travertine marble and placed in the center of the apse, the Resurrection that the painter Angelo Righi created in 1598 is depicted.
- In 1741 two tombstones were placed on the exit wall of the church. The one on the right in memory of the protection of the Virgin during the earthquakes of 1719 and 1730 and of the restoration works carried out thanks to the donation of Clement XII; the one on the left instead for the protection of the plague of 1657 and the earthquake of January 14, 1703.
- On 26 September 1997 a violent and continuous seismic swarm raged throughout the territory for days and the Sanctuary suffered serious damage. The Services Conference on 6 August 1999 therefore approved a restructuring project for the areas concerned which, thanks to the restoration and restoration works, were able to return to their former glory.
- Due to the 2016 earthquake, the Sanctuary was damaged. Some areas of the monument have been cordoned off.
- Rocca San Giovanni. Emblem of Visso together with the bell tower of the Collegiata, it is what remains of the fortification of the original village destroyed by the 1328 earthquake. Panoramic point on the Visso basin and on the Monte Bove massif as well as a suggestive observation point of the night sky.
- From the early seventeenth century the walls began to fall into disuse, in the northern part they were submerged by vegetation and in the southern part they were instead incorporated into new buildings or demolished.
- The tower of San GIovanni was damaged in 1944 by war events.
- Priory palace, Largo Giovan Battista Gaola Antinori 1, Visso, ☎ 39 0737 95421. Known as the Town Hall, it is the historic seat of the Town Hall. In the city coat of arms the palace has three arches on the river (as it was before the construction of the embankments), but the current form is that of 1482; the façade has a Gothic portal, Renaissance windows and a two-quadrant clock, while inside the entrance hall (with the municipal units of measurement) and the Council Chamber are remarkable, the latter embellished with mottos on good governance and dominated from an autographed fresco by Paolo da Visso.
