Key to Umbria: Orvieto
 


Santa Maria della Cava (1640)


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The Confraternita dei Fabbri (guild of blacksmiths) built this Baroque church on the site of the small church (12th century) of Sant’ Eligio.  The confraternity had presumably owned the earlier church, since St Eligius is the patron saint of metal workers.  The remains of Sant’ Eligio can be seen in the left wall of the present church.

The church was closed in the 1980s but has now been restored and was reopened in 2003.   The restored church was dedicated to the Virgin in honour of a miraculous fresco of the Madonna and Child, a fragment of which survives above the altar (see below).

Interior

     

There is a lovely view of the lantern of the church from the terrace opposite Palazzo Filippeschi Simoncelli (see Walk III).   This lantern provides natural light for the interior.

Madonna and Child (14th century)

This fragment is probably from the venerated image mentioned above.





Madonna and Child (ca. 1945)

The annual procession from the church on the Feast of the Presentation (2nd February) was re-instituted at that time: the local people ("Cavajoli") follow a painted wooden statue of the Madonna and Child that they commissioned after the Second World War to give thanks for their survival.  It is kept in a niche to the left of the altar.






Return to Monuments of Orvieto.


Return to Walk IV.