Tempio di San Fortunato

A monumental staircase lifts Todi's Franciscan temple of San Fortunato above the rooftops. Begun in 1292 and left unfinished at the facade, the church preserves Masolino's Madonna, frescoes by painters of Giotto's school, a carved sixteenth-century choir and the tomb of poet Jacopone da Todi in the crypt.

Why it matters

San Fortunato is a notable example of Umbrian Gothic architecture. The Friars Minor built it on Piazza Umberto I over the remains of a church complex older than the year 1000. Construction began in 1292 and continued into the second half of the fifteenth century; the building was never formally completed. In the crypt, one chapel holds relics of Todi's five patron saints—Fortunato, Callisto, Cassiano, Degna and Romana—while a nearby tomb holds Jacopone da Todi, the poet-friar born in the town around 1230.

What to notice

The facade campaign began in 1415 under Giovanni di Santuccio, who died in 1458, leaving it incomplete. Three ogival portals open through the lower section; spiral columns, tendrils and small figures enrich the central portal, flanked by niches with an Annunciation pair. Inside are three aisles of equal height beneath cross vaults, a polygonal apse, a fourteenth-century Gothic high altar and thirteen side chapels. The walls preserve fourteenth-century frescoes by painters of Giotto's school. Masolino da Panicale signed and dated the panel of the Madonna with Child and two angels in 1432. The apse area holds a wooden choir carved in 1590 by Antonio Maffei of Gubbio. The crypt, built in 1596, contains the patrons' chapel and Jacopone's tomb.

Context and history

The commune supported the church, whose construction beginning in 1292 replaced an earlier cult site over more than a century and a half. In 1327 and 1328 the building was plundered during the occupation by Louis the Bavarian's army and the antipope Peter of Corvara. The campanile is dated to 1460, near the end of the building campaign; the facade work began in 1415. The crypt took its present form in 1596, when the relics of the five patron saints were gathered there. An oil panel by Andrea Polinori, dated 1618, marks a later devotional layer. The upper register of the facade and parts of the building remain unfinished.