The first mention of the church appears in a will of 1301. It was owned by the Confraternity of Santa Maria della
Misericordia. whose existence is documented since 1347-48 (it remains the confraternity's headquarters today). Their charitable aims were to distribute bread and meat among the poor and provide dowries for
impoverished spinsters. However, by 1574, they also included the running of a "Hospitale.... infantium expositorum" (for foundling children) - until 1877, the adjacent road was named via Esposti.
After the Unification of Italy, the assets of the Confraternity passed to the State. The solid portal of the church is formed by a
pointed Gothic Arch with an arched lintel which sits on large square pilasters. The fine door, dated 1537, has brass nails and an engraved inscription which makes reference to the Confraternity and to the
Hospital. The large fresco of the Madonna of Mercy immediately above it also dates from the 16th Century.The single nave interior is covered by a lunette-shaped vaulted ceiling which is
decorated by large sculpted shells at the four corners. The church is dominated by the high altar. The elegant baldacchino
(canopy) over it rests on frescoed columns which stand on pedestals which bear the symbol of a tower. The fine 15th Century Madonna of Mercy, made in polychrome terracotta, stands in a niche at the
centre of the altar which is decorated with stars. The Four Evangelists that appear in the vaulting of the baldacchino, are erroneously attributed to Salimbeni. The altarpieces on the two side
altars depict the Massacre of the Innocents and The Visitation, painted in 1625 by Claudio Ridolfi. Ridolfi's pupil painted the predella of the left altar which depicts the
Massacre of the Innocents (1634). The large pieces of fresco, found above the level of the vaulting, and now hanging on the walls, provide evidence that the church, in mediaeval times, contained a
complex pictorial cycle of frescoes right up as far as its truss-beam roof - this was concealed with the later construction of the vaulted ceiling beneath. These frescoes depict Lamentation on the Death
of Christ, The Crucifixion, and The Martyrdom of Saint Apollonia. There is also a Martyrdom of Saint Apollonia (1455) which is attributed to Maestro Jacopo Bedi. The standard of 1539, which
is framed like a picture, depicts Saint Blaise Enthroned with Angels on one side and The Coronation of Mary and brothers of the Confraternità della Misericordia on the other side. It is
an early work of Benedetto Nucci who was born in Cagli and worked in Gubbio. In the first sacristy there are more fragments of frescoes, including San Domenico
attributed to Il Maestro di Monte Martello. A wall decoration with anthropomorphic capitals and landscapes lies beneath the whitewash, waiting to be brought back to light.
text by Alberto Mazzacchera |
