San Fortunato Church -- An Early Hall Church

Inside, San Fortunato's is wide and bright -- unexpectedly so if you enter with a mindset acquired from the dark and narrow Gothic interiors to the north such as Notre Dame de Paris or Chartres -- churches started a century earlier than San Fortunato.  Its breadth is due primarily to its function as a preaching hall and its luminosity to the sparse use of stained glass which darkens over time.

This in one of the area's earliest "Hall Churches" and was built by the Franciscans only 66 years after their Umbrian founder's death.  St. Francis of Assisi urged simplicity in all things, even church architecture; yet his followers needed to build a church on a grand scale to compete with the Dominicans down the ridge who had acquired a monastery in 1236, a decade after the Franciscans arrived.^[161] Their biggest design problem was the small size of the lot.^.[158]

Their solution was to build high, not just the nave, but the side aisles as well. (Above a view towards the rear of the church.) We see 4 of the 6 slender supporting columns (each of them decorated with 8 decorative columns with capitals).  They hold the roof up but minimally obstruct the view.  Note how the side chapels are recessed so as not to detract from the vertical upsweep of the hall.  The red arrow in the top picture points to the stone pulpit high on the bay where all could see the sermonizing Franciscan. This is a space that can pack in the population to hear the preaching.

The Apse

San Fortunato blesses his apse area

Work completed first in the apse and the first two bays, finishing around 1305.^[162] But then construction halted.  This may have been because of Todi's relationship with the papacy.  When construction started, Pope Boniface VIII who had grown up in Todi supported it.  But in 1307, Todi's Ghibelline faction (which supported the Holy Roman Empire against the Pope) attacked a papal brigade.^[166]   When work started back up on the place is not clear.

The main altar area

The above view towards the altar shows a 1643 statue of Saint Fortunato, an early bishop here. He cured many diseases and eased the population's pain while the Goths were ravaging the area after Roman power diminished.   At Fortunato's feet is the main altar (below).

Surrounded by the choir, Todi's many saints supporting the main altar

The main altar (above) features 10 differently carved pillars holding up delicate arches decorated by small rosettes. At center is another image of San Fortunato. His cohorts are other Todi saints: from left Saints Romana, Callixtus, Fortunato himself, Cassiano, and Degna. These were done in 1861 by home-town artist Sabatini who signed the altar.^[31]

The Choir

Antonio Maffei's walnut choir wraps around the apse	choir detail (Todi's seal)

The pièce de résistance of San Fortunato's apse is the exquisitely carved walnut choir. Separated by Corinthian columns, its 58 stalls surround the apse. It is the work of Antonio Maffei of the Umbrian town of Gubbio.^[30]The inlays of this 1590 masterpiece include the town bird -- the eagle.

The Pulpit

Pulpit with eagle carved in relief at bottom and probably San Fortunato at center.

The Franciscans, along with their great rivals, the Dominicans, were Mendicant (preaching) orders and the purpose of this church was to allow them to preach to great numbers of people.  Today such highly decorated stone pulpits set rising high above the crowd in the right side of the nave have been rendered obsolete by audio amplification.  (A similarly obsolete walnut pulpit also clings to the second pillar on the right wall).

The Organ Space

 Missing Organ

While the pulpit may be obsolete, the organ is downright missing in action.

The Crypt

The 5 saints painted by Sabatini on the main altar (see above photo) lie together in this marble sarcophagus (above) in the crypt directly below the apse. Behind the carved stone at right lie the remains of another Franciscan: Poet Jacopone da Todi who died in 1306 during the early days of this church's construction.  The inscription here has the dates beautifully chiseled -- but wrong). He's best remembered (perhaps erroneously) for writing the medieval Hymn Stabat Mater (which Catholics of a certain age remember as "At the Cross her station keeping, stood the mournful Mother weeping...". You, of course, remember enough of your Latin to recall that Stabat Mater translates as "the mother stands.") What's forgotten is that Jacopone was quite a character and a lawyer before his conversion as his wife laid dying for his sins.  Afterwards, his long repentance raised weirdness to an art. Check out his details by clicking here. 

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