Pieve di Canoscio (Santa Maria Assunta)

Below the sanctuary hill of Canoscio stands the older parish church, a Romanesque building in sandstone with a bare interior, timber roof and layers of medieval frescoes. Its history is closely connected with the sixth-century Treasure of Canoscio, discovered nearby in 1935 and now preserved in the Diocesan Museum of Città di Castello.

Why it matters

Christian worship at Canoscio is documented from the sixth century, while the present church took its Romanesque form in the late twelfth century. The Treasure of Canoscio, twenty-five pieces of sixth-century silver found in a nearby field, attests to an early Christian community in the area.

What to notice

The church has a single nave ending in a semicircular apse. Its sandstone façade is crowned on the left by a bell gable, or campanile a vela, and the open timber roof leaves the walls visible. The walls preserve layers of votive frescoes, mostly attributed to local workshops and dating from the fourteenth century onward. To the right of the entrance is a Madonna della Misericordia with saints, dated 1348; on the left wall is an unusual Trinity shown with three heads. A fragment depicting a procession of the confraternity of the Bianchi is another distinctive work. Elia Volpi painted a Madonna and Child on the left wall in the early twentieth century, during a restoration that returned the church to its earlier forms.

Context and history

The parish church is dedicated to Saints Cosmas and Damian. The nearby hill became a place of Marian pilgrimage after a chapel dedicated to the Madonna Assunta was built in 1348. The Treasure of Canoscio was found near the cemetery on 12 July 1935. Its twenty-five silver objects include plates, patens, chalices, a lidded pyx, strainers, a ladle and spoons. The inscription of Aelianus and Felicitas appears on one paten. After study in Perugia and Rome, the treasure was placed in the Diocesan Museum of Città di Castello. The church was restored again in 2014.