bevagna and montefalco

both bevagna and montefalco are very small towns near foligno. bevagna is set in the valley and montefalco on a nearby hilltop. bevagna had its origins as a stop on the via flaminia, the ancient roman road that connected rome to the northeast of italy. montefalco began as an umbrian settlement. both towns were protected with town walls, indicating that they were once wealthy. but both towns fell under the domination of foligno at the end ofthe middle ages, so both stagnated while foligno grew.


this small street follows the curved outline
of the old roman amphitheater, as in many towns,
converted into houses during the middle ages.


the center of bevagna, piazza silvestri,
with its impressive medieval public buildings.


at the main entrance to the church of St. Sylvester
on the piazza, 12th-century angels keep watch.


the town walls of montefalco, restored by the popes during
the renaissance, when the region was part of the papal states.


the weirdest part of montefalco were the skeletons on display in the church. on the left is Blessed Ciarella di Giacobetto, an abbess of the local convent who knew and admired St. Angela of Foligno. She died in 1345. Nothing is known of the one on the right, called Blessed Illuminata, but her remains and those of Ciarella were moved to the church in the 18th century when the convent was closed, reclothed, and placed in this glass coffin together.


now the story gets weirder: an unknown pilgrim who came to montefalco to pay his respects to Ciarella and Illuminata about a hundred years ago died while keeping an overnight vigil in the church. His body, stiffened in the position in which he died, was placed in the tower of the church, but people soon noticed that it did not decompose. Thinking that it was a sign that he was blessed, they moved his body, still in the same position, and placed it in a second glass coffin next to the other bodies. the sign in the church notes that there is no official sanction for "the blessed pilgrim."