The Church of Santa Maria Nuova

The parish church of Santa Maria Nuova , in the center of the town, dates back to the early 17th century. It is in late Renaissance style, with a remarkable wooden choir placed behind the main altar.

DESIGNED BY AN ILLUSTER ARCHITECT

Designed by the famous architect and sculptor Ippolito Scalza (Orvieto, 1532-1617) and recognized as one of his last works, it was started in 1605 The plaque commemorating the consecration is kept in the sacristy and reports that it was erected in "comudum populi", that is for the convenience of the population who evidently resided, for the most part, inside the town and found it inconvenient to go to the Pieve di Santa Maria located outside the walls.

In it the great architect engages with a theme that will later be one of the most important of Baroque architecture, namely the attempt to unify longitudinal and central plan. The result is a very particular space, a sort of mixture of a central plan with a church with three naves of equal height.

This is how the architect Andrea Miscetti explains the peculiarity of the plant in the book "A church as identity and memory" (2012):

Inside Santa Maria Nuova, with the exception of the choir, the Chapel of the Blessed Sacrament (on the left side) and that of San Carlo Borromeo (today the Chapel of the Relics, on the right side), a square is highlighted which alludes to a precise model of plan which goes by the name of quincunx, also defined as "cross inscribed in a square". The two side chapels, at the sides of the presbytery, prepare the longitudinal expansion of the plant. The presbytery surmounted by a barrel vault emerges from the square perimeter of the church and this expansion "longitudinalizes" the central layout making the quincunx church look like a hall building with three naves. The four central pillars, with five sides, link the different spatial units to each other through a system of protrusions and recesses, which are different units.

THE PULPIT

According to the dictates of San Carlo Borromeo, in Santa Maria Nuova we find the pulpit located "in the womb of the church", set against one of the two pillars near the choir. In the context of the reform of the Council of Trent, this solution, introduced by the mendicant orders in the Middle Ages, characterizes the fundamental importance of the sermon to bring it closer to the faithful and facilitate listening.

THE ALTAR SHOVEL AND THE OVALS

On the back wall there is a large altarpiece depicting the Madonna and Child, the souls in Purgatory and Saints Matthew, Michael the archangel, Nicola, Lorenzo, Giuseppe and Giorgio. Since the saints represented are traditionally recognized as the protectors of the city it is very likely that the two figures below represent Santa Vittoria and Sant'Eumenio, patrons of the town.

In the altarpiece the Virgin is in a central position and in a regal attitude, with two musical angels on either side. She supports the Child with her left arm, while with a scepter in her right hand she seems to order the archangel to help the souls in Purgatory. The fact that the altarpiece contains the representation of Sant'Eumenio suggests that it was made after 1658, the year in which the Bishop of Gortina was counted among the patron saints of the town of Ficulle.

The decoration of the tribune is completed with four ovals from the eighteenth century, depicting Santa Teresa d'Avila and San Calcedonio (on the front wall next to the altarpiece), San Luigi Gonzaga (on the left wall) and Santa Margherita from Cortona (on the right wall).

THE LAST SUPPER IN THE CHAPEL OF THE SS. SACRAMENT

To the left of the presbytery we find the Chapel of the Blessed Sacrament, embellished with a representation of the Last Supper made by the Confraternity of the Blessed Sacrament. The particularity of the work is the depiction of a martyr saint in the lower left, towards the bystanders, probably identifiable in Santa Vittoria.

THE VENERATION OF HOLY VICTORY

The cult of Santa Vittoria was probably introduced to Ficulle by the Camaldolese who had settled in the Abbey of San Niccolò al Monte Orvietano. The Camaldolese are in fact a congregation derived from the Benedictines, whose monks transported the body of the Saint to the Abbey of Farfa in the Sabina. Later, under the threat of Saracen raids, her body was divided into three parts, which were then sent to Rome, Bagnoregio and Fermo, cities where the monks had already spread the cult for some time.

When the Ficullesi asked the Roman Curia to have the relics of the saint venerated among the protectors of the country, Pius VI, he ordered the search for them in the Catacomb of San Ciriaco al Verano, in which they found the whole body of a young girl accompanied by a glass container with clotted blood (a sure sign of martyrdom). The Pope gave it to Ficulle in 1791. From that moment, Santa Vittoria materialized in that body to be exhibited for veneration under the high altar of the church of Santa Maria Nuova. Dressed in a gold brocade dress and celestial mantle, the saint holds a palm in her hand, symbol of her martyrdom, and on her head a crown symbol of holiness.

THE VENERATION OF SAINT EUMEN

A recently built statue is dedicated to the other patron saint of the town of Ficulle, Sant'Eumenio da Gortina, located along the right aisle of the Church. The statue, made by a Campania craftsman and offered by the population of Ficulle, has the particularity of portraying St. Eumenio in a bishop's dress, with the fortress at his feet, symbol of the town of Ficulle.

The story that links Ficulle to this distant saint, originally from the island of Crete, is curious. In fact, it is said that during a siege the population, now at the end of its strength and on the verge of surrender, gathered in prayer asking for divine intercession for the protection of the town and that immediately along the medieval walls they lit up with flames. The enemies, seeing the lighting of so many torches along the walls, thought that the population was preparing not for surrender but for combat and that they still had energy and tools to resist the siege and decided to desist. It was September 18, the day dedicated to Sant'Eumenio and the Ficullesians decided to attribute to him, known in the history of the saints also as the thaumaturge (that is, the one who heals) and torch of faith, the miraculous event and elected him as their patron. Even today on the day preceding the feast of the patron saint, the walls are illuminated by torches and a relay race between districts recalls the miracle event.