San Pietro in Vineis

San Pietro in Vineis is a medieval church outside Anagni's walls, preserved within the twentieth-century Convitto Principe di Piemonte. Its layered fabric includes remains of a cosmatesque pavement and a cycle of medieval and Renaissance frescoes.

Why it matters

Founded around the middle of the twelfth century, the monastery passed from the Poor Clares to the Capuchins in 1575. After the religious corporations were suppressed in 1873, the complex changed hands. A 1926 college project by architect Alberto Calza Bini incorporated the church as the compositional centre of the new buildings, preserving its historic fabric.

What to notice

Remains of a cosmatesque pavement survive in the raised presbytery. Painted arcades, a frieze and a geometric velarium form an earlier decorative layer beneath a cycle of thirteen frescoes extending about twelve metres. The scenes include the Passion, Resurrection and Second Coming, the Stigmatization of St Francis, and figures of Saints Aurelia, Scholastica and Benedict. Slits in the wall allowed the nuns to follow services from the adjoining spaces.

Context and history

The convent stood just outside the city walls in an area once marked by vineyards. After the complex passed to the Comune di Anagni and later to the FEC, the INIEL institute proposed a college-convitto in 1926. Calza Bini's design arranged the buildings around the old church; the discovery of the pavement and frescoes informed the decision to preserve it. The college became known as the Principe di Piemonte, serving the children of railway employees.