Tempietto sul Clitunno

Il Tempietto sul Clitunno, a small temple-shaped sachet, is located in the town of Campello sul Clitunno, in the village of Pissignano, along the slope of the hill of S. Benedetto dominating the Spoleto's valley. Considered one of the most interesting medieval monuments of Umbria, it is among the seven jewels of art and longobard architecture in Italy that have recently been included in the prestigious UNESCO World Heritage List.Among the most appealing features of the visit is the charming location, already described by Plinio the Younger as a place covered by "ancient and shady cypresses at the feet of a source that forms a pond." The building, which reuses Roman architectural elements pertinent to the structures of a former sanctuary named after god Clitumnus (divinity identified with Jupiter), is shaped like a classic temple: it rests on a high podium with a front made up of four corinthian columns Pronao tetrastilo) that supports the trabeation on which the inscription the church dedicates to the "God of the Angels".The interior, which is accessed through two side stairs, has the apse with a complex decoration where a relief sculpture (originally polychrome) and frescoes of Christian theme (Christ blessing St. Peter, Saint Paul, Angels with Gemata Cross), dating back to the 8th century AD.The small newsstand-tabernacle in the middle of the apse re-sculpts sculptural elements from the first century AD. Lived for a long time in a Roman sack, the building has been subject to numerous interpretations of its constructive phases. A first proposal of dating has seen him elevated in the 4th-5th century AD, as a church dedicated to S. Salvatore. Recent studies, however, have made it possible to circumscribe the history of the building at the Longobard age, with a swing between the beginning of the 7th and the 8th century.