Trevi

History

Historians traditionally place the foundation of Trevi in the mid-4th century BC. Trebia or Treba was an Umbrian city situated on the western slopes of the Apennines, between Fulginium and the sources of the Clitunno. Originally it lay in the plain on the banks of that river, as recalled by the phrase "Clitumnus fluvius qui Trevis civitatem Flaminiae interluit" in the Vatican gloss on Juvenal.

Whatever its earliest origin, whether Celtic or Etruscan, Trevi in antiquity was only a castle or fortress, and this memory survived in the place name Piazza della Rocca.

In the late 2nd century BC the town was taken by Rome. Pliny listed it among the municipalities of Umbria, and inscriptions mention the Trebiates. In the Itinerarium Hierosolymitanum it appears as Trevis, from which the present name developed.

After the end of Roman rule it passed under the Goths and later under the Lombards, as part of the Duchy of Spoleto.

Trevi became an episcopal see in the 3rd century and remained so, according to the chronicle of Gualdo, until the 9th century, or according to some writers until the 11th century.

In the Middle Ages it was included in the duchy of Spoleto and with it passed, together with other neighboring cities, under the dominion of the Church.

Innocent III united Trevi to Foligno, and it remained with that city while Foligno was Guelph; it again returned under Foligno during the rule of Ugolino II Trinci, vicar of the Church and lord of Foligno.

The municipality of Trevi emerged in 1213. Trevi suffered from siding now with the Guelphs and now with the Ghibellines. In 1310 the Perugians rode to Trevi, forcibly restored the Guelphs there, and expelled the opposing faction.

It was later ruled by Biordo Michelotti, then occupied by Niccolò Piccinino, and afterwards by Francesco Sforza. After the fall of Trinci power in 1439, it was subjected to other lords and later, having passed to the Church, was governed by the cardinal legates of Umbria. The city had a Mount of Piety established in 1469.

In 1513 the town was threatened with serious danger because of the hostility of Spoleto, whose forces came to besiege it with an army of 7,000 combatants, but, through the intervention of Perugia and Foligno, they abandoned the undertaking. …

Religion

The church of Sant'Emiliano preserves on the exterior wall to the east the remains of a chapel decorated with three apses, a construction of the 11th century. The principal entrance has a rectangular form and ends in a pediment with the statue of Sant'Emiliano in the center and two lions at the sides caressing him.

The interior, in the left nave, contains three altars included within a single architectural composition in white stone from the Apennines. In the niches are the statues of Mary with Jesus in her arms and Saint Joseph. The central altar has a richer altar with fine carving, above which rise two pilasters whose cornices correspond to the columns of the lateral altars. The central part is crowned by an ornament bearing in low relief the figure of God blessing. This work was executed by maestro Rocco da Vicenza.

The baptismal font is a stone work from the beginning of the 16th century. Above it stands the statue of Saint John. On the right side of the entrance wall is an oil painting representing the Madonna della Cintura, and in small panels in a recess of the wall are painted scenes from the life of Christ. The stucco decoration and the painting were executed by Orazio Alfani and his son Domenico in 1580. The church is furnished with an organ.

The sanctuary stands on the site of a rural house where, in 1483, an image of the Madonna with Child and Saint Francis had been painted for devotional purposes. On 5 August 1485 the image was said to have shed tears of blood, leading to the construction of the sanctuary, completed in 1522.

The church was built at the foot of Trevi, on the slope called San Costanzo, in 1487, from a design by maestro Antonio Fiorentino. The Olivetan monks of San Pietro di Bovara took possession of it on 1 March 1489, although the construction was not yet complete. Maestro Giovanni di Gian Pietro of Venice executed the entrance on the principal façade. He also made the cornice of the façade in 1511.

The interior has a Latin cross plan with a single nave and several chapels. Within the church are funerary monuments carved in pietra caciolfa belonging to members of the Valenti family. The same family commissioned the polychrome marble altar intended to house the image of the Madonna associated with the origin of the sanctuary. …