Chiesa di Santa Maria Infraportas

The Church of Santa Maria Infraportas in Foligno is a Romanesque basilica built around an earlier chapel. Its three naves and frescoes preserve a record of the city's religious and artistic history from the twelfth to the sixteenth centuries.

Why it matters

An eighth-century chapel dedicated to the Assumption and Saints Peter and Paul stood on this site. The Romanesque basilica was recorded as a pieve in 1138. Its name reflects its changing position in relation to Foligno's walls: first outside the gate, then between the old and newer circuits.

What to notice

The portico reuses columns and capitals from earlier construction. In the left nave, a chapel preserves twelfth-century frescoes of the Archangel Gabriel, Dismas, and Christ blessing between Saints Peter and Paul, along with a Romanesque wooden Madonna. Other works include paintings associated with Niccolò Alunno and Pierantonio Mezzastris, and a signed Madonna with Child by Ugolino di Gisberto.

Context and history

The church's façade was refaced in the nineteenth century with white and pink stone, reusing elements of an earlier rose window. Its interior retains the three-nave plan and frescoes added over several centuries. A hospital was associated with the church by 1087, and a chapter of canons served here through the nineteenth century.