STRONCONE

Whoever comes to Stroncone, is surprised for the panoramic position of the town, situated on a hill at 450 metres above the sea level, like on a terrace that looks onto the valley of Terni and Narni. The look can admire an intact country, studded with groups of houses and little settlements. Walking through the alleys and stopping in the little squares, you can still breath the atmosphere of the medieval castle placed among big walls. Churches, palaces, towers: in Stroncone everything has the dignity that time and history left during the centuries. But Stroncone is also an active and dynamic centre that, without forgetting the traditional pastoral and agricultural activities, turns its attention to the new productions of manufactured articles and to tourist enterprises. During the year there are many folk and cultural events and the historical commemorations. Especially during the summer time the welcome and the atmosphere are very good and the food, like the most natural Umbria's tradition, is excellent. Stroncone is longing for you to know its treasures and to appreciate them. Stroncone still keeps its perimetrical walls intact in which three gates are opened: the main gate, originally having a fore-gate, leading to the main square with the Oratory of St. John the Beheaded; the Porta Capraia o di Sopra, facing the mountains in the direction of Rieti and leading to Via degli Orti, with typical gardens linked to the houses adjoining the walls; the Porta di Sotto, or Porta Nuova built near the church of St. Mary in Neve, in the direction of Terni.

Also the multi-centered structure of the town, characterised by a double spindle-like development due to the morphology of the site and the pre-existence of two main attracting poles is intact: the church of St. Michael the Archangel or St. Angelo to the north; and a watchtower to the south, on the highest point of the centre, where a Rocca was built in the age of communes, after which the present Piazza was named. In this area we find the Town Hall and the church of St. Nicholas. The streets also appear conditioned by this two-pole structure, being organised in two unitary road systems. The first one, from St. John's square to the church of St. Angelo, consists in three main streets (via Vici, via Sant'Angelo and via Selfini) marking the spindle's perimeter and bisector; the other, a more irregular system because it is interrupted by the erection of the town hall and the adjoining apostolic palace, goes from the present via Gregorio Contessa (formerly via di Sopra), tangent to St. Angel square, to a funnel-like exit in the two directions of porta Reatina and of the Tower square. The appearance of the town is, therefore, that taken on in the 14th and 15th centuries. The following additions were few in number: the public fountain in piazza della Libertà and some palaces that did not alter at all the medieval composition of the town. The only significant intervention in the town planning dates back to the 17th century and consists in the dismantling of the Rocca, which was placed where we now find the Tower square, delimited by the church of Madonna del Gonfalone to the south, the Massoli palace and other buildings of the same age to the east. Outside the town walls we find the Benedictine monasteries of St. Benedict in Fundis and St. Simeon and the Convent of St. Francis. Among the paintings kept in Stroncone, besides the manuscripts' illuminations, we find an altar-piece with the Virgin's coronation by Rinaldo from Calvi (1520-21) in the church of St. Nicholas, a canvas representing the Madonna del Rosario by Bartolomeo Barbiani (1628) in the church of St. Angelo, and the decoration of the church of St. John the Beheaded by Giuseppe Bastiani (1610).

Not far from the centre, in the Convent of St. Francis, there is one of the most faithful pictures of the saint from Assisi, dating back (according to archive documents) to 1400. Painted in fresco next to a Virgin with the Infant Jesus by an Umbrian master trained in Orvieto, the work was attributed by Lunghi to Master of the Dormitio from Terni (LUNGHI 1984). Outside the church, in the chapel of St. Anthony Abbot, we can see the fresco of the Virgin in throne with four saints by Tiberius from Assisi (1509), and the rich Library in the convent with quite a large number of 16th century works of art. Outside the centre, in the church of St. Simeon and on the external lunette of the portal we see some votive frescoes that can be attributed to the Master of Narni of 1409 or to some master of his circle (FRATINI 1986). We notice that artists of a same cultural koinè, typical of this part of southern Umbria, worked in the Stroncone area in the 14th and 15th centuries. We cannot say whether works of the same kind were also inside the castle, due to the continuous changes made in the two collegiate churches which would not have allowed the decorations of that age to be saved. However, it is very likely that the two main churches did contain such decorations. In the 16th and 17th century we notice a trend in the community, certainly due to quite a large availability of money, to order works from popular foreign artists, mostly working in Umbria and able to keep pace with the artistic culture of the age. The choices made by both secular and religious purchasers seem to be wise and always conscious of the main expressions of a new aesthetic trend.