Sant'Ansano is a neoclassical-style,

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

church located in the town of

Spoleto Spoleto (, also , , ; ) is an ancient city in the Italian province of Perugia in east-central Umbria on a foothill of the Apennines. It is south of Trevi, north of Terni, southeast of Perugia; southeast of Florence; and north of Rome. H ...

, in the

province of Perugia The province of Perugia () is the larger of the two provinces in the Umbria region of Italy, comprising two-thirds of both the area and population of the region. Its capital is the city of Perugia. The province covered all of Umbria until 1927, w ...

, region of

Umbria Umbria ( ; ) is a Regions of Italy, region of central Italy. It includes Lake Trasimeno and Cascata delle Marmore, Marmore Falls, and is crossed by the Tiber. It is the only landlocked region on the Italian Peninsula, Apennine Peninsula. The re ...

, Italy.

History

A church at the site had been built around the tomb of St Isaac, a Syrian

eremitic A hermit, also known as an eremite (adjectival form: hermitic or eremitic) or solitary, is a person who lives in seclusion. Eremitism plays a role in a variety of religions. Description In Christianity, the term was originally applied to a Ch ...

monk who supposedly came to a mountain around Spoleto in the 6th century. The present church was built in the late 1700s by the Milanese architect

Antonio Dotti Antonio is a masculine given name of Etruscan origin deriving from the root name Antonius. It is a common name among Romance language–speaking populations as well as the Balkans and Lusophone Africa. It has been among the top 400 most popular m ...

. Inside 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 Archita Ricci (Urbino, 1560–1635) was an Italian painter active in Umbria, including Perugia, during 1599–1622. Biography The church of Sant'Ansano of Spoleto has a main altarpiece depicting the ''Martyrdom of Saint Ansanus'' by Ricci. The p ...

The ''Crypt of Sant'Isacco'' below the church was likely previously a ground-level, ancient Roman temple, upon which a church was built above. St Isaac of Monteluco was putatively a fifth century Syrian hermit, who established a community of hermit-monks in nearby

Monteluco Monteluco is a ''frazione'' (borough) of the ''comune'' of Spoleto, in Umbria, central Italy. Having a population of just 27, it is located on a limestone mountain covered by woods, at 780 meters over the sea level. The name derives from the L ...

. The crypt has romanesque-style, sculpted capitals (8-9th century) atop ancient Roman columns. It may in fact have been an original ground level pagan Roman temple. It also has some 11th-12th-century restored frescoes.Comune of Spoleto
entry on church, quoting L’Umbria, Manuali per il Territorio, Spoleto, Roma 1978; A. Sansi, Degli edifici e dei frammenti storici delle antiche età di Spoleto,Foligno 1869.

References

Churches in Spoleto Neoclassical architecture in Umbria Romanesque architecture in Spoleto 18th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in Italy Octagonal churches in Italy Neoclassical church buildings in Italy {{Umbria-RC-church-stub