Sant'Ansano is a neoclassical-style, Roman Catholic church located in the town of Spoleto, in the province of Perugia, region of Umbria, Italy. The present church was built in the late 1700s by the Milanese architect Antonio Dotti. Inside the church are housed a fresco depicting the Madonna and Child and two Saints by Giovanni di Pietro, also called Lo Spagna, and a main altarpiece depicting the Martyrdom of St Ansano by Archita Ricci.
The Crypt of Sant'Isacco below the church was likely previously a ground-level, ancient Roman temple, upon which a church was built above. The crypt has romanesque-style, sculpted capitals from the 8th-9th century atop ancient Roman columns. It also contains some restored frescoes from the 11th-12th century.
A church at the site had been built around the tomb of St Isaac, a Syrian eremitic monk who supposedly came to a mountain around Spoleto in the 6th century. St Isaac of Monteluco was putatively a fifth century Syrian hermit, who established a community of hermit-monks in nearby Monteluco.
Sources: Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons
Written by Nicolo Ciampini
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