SAN FRANCESCO DELLE DONNE
(The Women's church of Saint Francis)

Before going into a brief historical and artistic analysis of the church and its annexed monastery, it will be opportune­with a little leap of imagination­to go back in time to its beginnings, in the thirteenth century, to have a clearer idea as to the geographical place and to the its strong religious connotations, tied to the personality of Saint Francis and to his preaching in Perugia.

At the beginning of the thirteenth century the area called "La Conca"­ (The Little Valley), was not yet circumscribed by the walls that we see today; it consisted of a rocky terrain, a part of which was farmed, with vineyards and olive orchards, called pàstine (or pàstina), in Umbrian dialect, which means nursery. Such term was used, in its origins, to indicate a rocky area where by digging and creating terraces, vineyards were planted.

Therefore it was an area partially assigned to agricultural purposes, scarcely populated, and just outside the city walls, which, at that point, connected with the old fortification of Etruscan and Roman times. And it was right here, in the small and silent Little Valley, that Saint Francis, during the time of his preaching in Perugia, erected a small place of prayer where he and his disciples lived. We can date the building of this small convent around the year 1212; we are therefore talking of one of the first, and most ancient, Franciscan dwellings in Italy.

That this was an area that lent itself well to the spirit and to the religious life typical of the Franciscan order is shown by the fact that Saint Giles, one of the first brothers of Saint Francis, chose Monteripido (a hill a few hundreds of meters away) as his place of prayer for more than twenty years, until his death, approximately in the year 1261. Moreover, we shouldn't forget that the first meeting between Saint Francis and Saint Domenico of Guzman took place right in the neighborhood of the pàstine Convent.

The name, Women's Church of Saint Francis, stems from the fact that since 1252­when the Church of Saint Francis in the Field was built­the convent was passed by the Franciscan monks to the Benedictine Sisters of Sant'Angelo del Renajo, near Cenerente. The monastery gained, in the course of the centuries, a considerable economic value, so much so that, in the middle of the sixteenth century, during the legation of the cardinal Crispo, several important works of restoration and expansion of the building were made, for which the nuns paid by selling, in 1547, the house and the place called of Saint Claire (today it is the Monastery of Saint Catherine) and other goods belonging to the nuns of Saint Julienne.

Because of its location­just outside the city walls­the monastery was abandoned several times, during wars, or in times when the fear of war was high; in 1643 the nuns received among them also the Benedictine nuns of Saint Catherine, who since then lost their own monastery on the road to Ponte d'Oddi. In 1810 the monastery, along with other ones, was officially suppressed, but only in 1815 it was definitely closed down; in 1821 it became an institute of education for poor girls. Among the non­religious uses of the facility of the convent­or better, of what was left of it­there was also a textile factory, started by Count Zeffirino Faina, where up to 300 girls of the "commons" of the town of Perugia were employed. The workshop produced unbleached silk of excellent quality: it received awards in national and international exhibits (in Florence in 1861 and in Paris in 1862). Among the main suppliers of cocoons we should mention the Benedictine monks of Saint Peter, and the baron Bettino Ricasoli from Tuscany. The textile factory stopped all activity for good in 1918 and from that year the facilities were used by the Morleni Transports Company until 1925, when a company of ceramics and china, "La Salamandra" (the Salamander) made its headquarters there and continued its activity until the nineteen fifties.

It is obvious that even at a glance we see the great importance that the women, and the feminine element, have had in the tormented history of the convent, and thus we see that the name of Women's Church of Saint Francis is not at all a fortuitous choice.

The cooperative society "Giuditta Brozzetti" continues in the footsteps of this long feminine tradition, producing with ancient, hand­operated looms precious cloths, hand made, that recapture mediaeval patterns and designs, continuing the path started centuries ago by those Benedictine nuns.

Even though we don't know the exact date when the construction of the church began, we can suppose that the building of the Women's Church of Saint Francis and of the annexed monastery started already during the beginning years of the thirteenth century. The building developed from the original site of Saint Francis' hermitage and place of prayer. Thus the first church was built in the area of la Conca, that, because of its location outside the city walls, did not have buildings of any special interest, except for the so-called "Temple" of Sant'Angelo. Only in 1327 all of the area of La Conca was protected by a new system of protective walls that still today surround the facilities.

It's interesting to note that in those years here was one of the gates of entry into Perugia, the door of the Pàstina, which is still visible today­even though it is now part of the wall­in the street Fuori la Mura. Unfortunately the church has gone through numerous modifications and renovations and thus does not have a homogeneous architectural theme. The few Romanesque elements mix with the following developments, especially the Neogothical modifications made at the end of the nineteenth century, when, among other things, the large mullioned windows along the main nave of the church and the large windows of the transept and of the apse were made.

The church, with one nave and Latin cross-shaped plan, dates back between the thirteenth and the fourteenth century; the foundations of another church, of Romanesque style, is visible in the transept; it was probably a primitive church building with central structure, that was later developed along the longitudinal axis, becoming the nave.

The large cross vault at the crossing of the transept, resting on pillars with beautiful capitals, seems to be of Gothic make and together with the portal it makes up the better preserved parts of the building. The bell tower, with two sets of mullioned windows, is relatively well preserved, especially in its interior, where we find a lovely structure with cross vaults. To be noted that the ceramic tiles, located below the small decorative arches, are copies of the original ones. Analyzing a drawing of the eighteenth century of the convent, we can see how the present roof of the bell tower, result of restoration works between 1938 and 1943, is fairly similar to the original one.

During the last repairs and restoration of the central nave, some frescoes were discovered; they were very damaged and hardly readable, and are at present covered by plaster. This fact, however, makes us suppose that originally all the church was decorated by frescoes, in an architectural typology common to Franciscan churches.

In the church and the monastery there were also two large paintings on wood of the sixteenth century, which today are preserved in the National Gallery of Umbria. They are works of Bernardino di Mariotto: one depicting la Vergine col Bambino, San Giovannino, San Benedetto e San Francesco d'Assisi (The Virgin with Child, Saint John, Saint Benedict and Saint Francis), and the other a Madonna col Bambino e una monaca orante (Madonna with child and praying nun), dated 1492.

Historical and artistic research conducted by Dott. Paolo Maria Taddei

"Giuditta Brozzetti" Textile Workshop

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