Sansepolcro - 28 April

Very quiet here. It's Monday, so many shops and restaurants are closed. It's also raining, but never mind, there's still things to see.

Went today to the Cathedral, San Giovanni Evangelista, one of the few churches I've seen yet that is still in its Romanesque form. The church has several noteworthy artworks. The most important item here is a rare crucifix called the Volto Santo (Sacred Face) which dates from the 9th century. Unusually, it portrays Jesus as fully clothed. It was used for many centuries as a processional cross at Easter celebrations, but after authorities became aware of how rare an item it is (wooden things are very destructible) it was restored and given a special side chapel.

Unusually, the windows of the church are made of thin slices of alabaster, not glass.

Two very fine della Robbia terracotte of St. Benedict and St. Biagio.

A 14th century Madonna and Child in stone 

The apse and altar. There's something about Romanesque simplicity that I really like.

The adjoining cloister has been walled in, and now forms part of the civic offices, but there are some frescoes of the life of St. Benedict. One of Benedict's miracles was finding a missing pruning-hook that had been dropped into a pond. It seems a very prosaic miracle, but rather touching for all that; no doubt the pruning-hook was quite expensive and the only one the monks had.

 There is a little chapel here in the cloister built over the original shrine that gave Sansepolcro (Sacred Sepulchre) its name. The shrine houses a fragment of Christ's tomb, brought back from the Holy Land by two pilgrims, Arcano and Egidio. A community grew up around the shrine, including several monasteries attracted by the flow of pilgrims to the site. Permission was given for a Saturday market by the local big-wig, and this, combined with the rich pastures and forests surrounding the area, set Sansepolcro up as a viable little town. It also occupied a prime position on the route from Florence to Rome, the old Via Roma.
  Sansepolcro became famous for its woad production, the blue dye a cheaper alternative to costly indigo. The town is also the home of dried pasta. In 1828, Giulia Boninsegni and Giovanni Buitoni, husband and wife pasta-makers, had the idea of drying pasta to be reconstituted later, and a whole new industry was born.
  A fascinating town and well worth a stay of a few days.