Santa Maria degli Angeli

Santa Maria degli Angeli is a place that I visited with my whole family in the spring of 2022. We used this town mainly as a base to visit both Assisi and other places in Umbria, some of which, personally, I had never seen. This trip was part of a series that began in 2020, when due to the restrictions on traveling abroad, they pushed me and my sister to take our parents around Italy. I didn't know anything about Santa Maria degli Angeli because I thought that in addition to being a cheap and strategic place to stay and visit Assisi, I thought that there was nothing else. My amazement, however, manifested itself immediately when before the highway junction of the town, I saw a huge dome that appeared out of nowhere and dominated the scene. That dome was part of the Basilica of Santa Maria degli Angeli and personally I was happy with that discovery.
Even though the city was very small, it just so happened that our rental house was just a few blocks from the basilica, apparently the only place of interest in the city that instead amazed me for other aspects. Santa Maria degli Angeli was in fact a very elegant base made on a human scale, from there not only did we go to Assisi and other Umbrian cities almost every day but it was also interesting to experience that small place. It was nice to have breakfast in one of the nearby bars, there was the basilica that not only transmitted protection with its grandeur but brought many people to the city and in addition to this I liked to have dinner in a restaurant nearby because it was aesthetically beautiful and had excellent local cuisine. In other words, Santa Maria degli Angeli turned out to be a cradle, a quiet but not boring city, a sort of ideal comfort zone. Obviously the absolute protagonist was the basilica, a place that I visited several times, both with my family and alone, during my stay in the city.
The basilica immediately attracted my photographic attention and especially the dome that could be seen from different angles and always offered interesting glimpses. Another perspective that I loved was the lateral one because right there it gave me the impression of an imposing building as it was very tall and long. In addition to this, in front of the right nave there was a building that I discovered was called "Palazzo del Capitano del Perdono", and it was a two-story building that struck me especially for the arched portico along the entire building. As for the facade of the basilica, I immediately dedicated many photos to it, being struck not only by its proportions but also by the golden statue of the Madonna placed high up in the center. As I have said other times, I have a natural predisposition towards architectural details that go beyond the study of the same and rely on sensations. For some reason I was attracted more by the statue of the Madonna than by the facade and this not only because the object was the anatomy of a female figure. The base was from the sixteenth century but only later did I discover that the facade had been rebuilt around the middle of the nineteenth century following an earthquake that almost completely destroyed the front part. This explains my instincts a little; I was struck by two parts that were truly from another era and go and see what nature, like the dome and the left nave and later in the new part, I preferred a statue rather than the facade even if very elaborate and imposing. Given that I do not believe that already in the nineteenth century it was men like us who built certain structures but probably our species only took credit or in any case stole construction techniques that we then lost, I believe that there is something mysterious and magical that attracts me to much older structures. I have explained in other posts like Brussels my theories on certain structures as buildings designed to produce energy and how I do not believe it is possible that these were built using makeshift means that classical narrative wants us to believe. Personally, I believe that in the past there were different and more advanced civilizations than ours with better technologies and construction techniques and that these were somehow passed down to a certain point in history and then lost. Probably the history of humanity has been marked by several resets due to natural disasters and each beginning has brought a different development, only our civilization has the presumption of proposing itself as the most advanced when in reality it is the poorest based on an imperialist capitalism that is now unsustainable. This reflection in hindsight clearly did not influence my visit to the basilica and especially the discovery of the interior, certainly even more interesting than its facade.

The Dome

Palazzo del Capitano del Perdono

Basilica of Santa Maria degli Angeli

Even though the vaults were very high, the first thing I personally noticed when entering the basilica was a small church located right in the center and in front of the apse. Right near the entrance there were two other statues, one depicting the Madonna and an area dedicated to Jesus. They struck me because they had dedicated lighting and were placed on tables, probably they were statues placed there temporarily, however I did not investigate them further. Walking around inside I was also very impressed by a statue of Christ on the cross that occupied an entire chapel. This statue was very suggestive because it was surrounded by very high vaults and with many paintings both on the sides and on the roof.
The interior was full of paintings, all very beautiful and all in a certain sense to be studied rather than looked at due to their complexity. I was especially struck by one that depicted the basilica with the background of Assisi where you could see the basilica of San Francesco. The size and minuteness of the details would give space for hours to study just one painting of this kind which however inside the basilica did not have the right lighting. Its size also did not allow me to photograph the painting correctly because it was too distorted also due to its position high up. This and other paintings were certainly values ​​of the basilica which also saw various organs placed in different parts, these however were not particularly large or monumental but with simple lines and normal dimensions.
Despite all these details of complex beauty, what took center stage inside the basilica was the little church called Porziuncola; it is said that this was the favorite place of Saint Francis of Assisi and even though it was small it was literally always full of people who visited it. Personally, more than from a sacred point of view, I immediately appreciated it from an architectural and historical point of view. The chapel was very particular and you could see that it was very old. Starting from the wooden door which were two large blocks with very worn parts and from the paintings and materials with which it was built which were now deteriorated. Thinking rationally, it goes without saying that if today the Porziuncola is located inside a basilica presumably built around the sixteenth century, not only is the little church even older but it was moved inside the basilica with some particular technique. From a spiritual point of view as also in the Basilica of the Nativity in Bethlehem, a lot of importance is given to the place where some things arise, however I always remain skeptical about their original position and also about their original history.
The Porziuncola also had the “ungrateful” task of covering the apse from a visual point of view, which was simple even if decorated in wood, very beautiful but nothing monumental. On one side of the apse there was a path that led to an internal garden, that was the last place I visited in the basilica and paradoxically it was a place that was outside. In the garden there were some rare plants whose name I don’t remember now, even if it was simple and not large, the garden as well as the cloisters of the convents, are places that I love very much. They immediately transmit to me a feeling of calm and creativity probably because they are actually external places but where you always access them from an internal part. I believe that this is the mechanism that leads me to love places like the garden in question, in addition to the beauty of the place itself.
Santa Maria degli Angeli was a beautiful discovery, not only for the basilica but also and above all for the harmony that the city itself transmitted. Places of worship in general are quiet places, where people are welcoming and where everything works perfectly. These concepts were amplified much more in the small town of Santa Maria degli Angeli where I personally found a very beautiful balance and a singular tranquility. In fact, the city, even if it is a tourist destination, never gave me a sense of overcrowding and at the same time it was not a place that transmitted feelings of isolation. An ideal place in every sense, in sight but hidden, a sort of magic that really gave the impression of being born from the grandeur of the dome always visible from every angle.

Porziuncola

Porziuncola Interior

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A.M.