Church of Santa Maria delle Rose

The Church of Santa Maria delle Rose is located in the upper part of the town, not far from the Cathedral of San Rufino. It was formerly named Santa Maria Minore to distinguish it from the Church of Santa Maria Maggiore near the Bishop’s Palace, and was also called “del Sopramuro” because it stands on the Roman terracing behind the Temple of Minerva.

The architect Giovanni Antonio Antolini discovered the remains of a pagan temple here in the early 19th century.
The church was first documented in 1198 among the bishop’s appurtenances, but the structure is certainly older, as can be seen from the carving in a side door.
The architrave is decorated with stylized floral motifs, supported by sculpted brackets and slabs with early medieval friezes set into the façade. Among them, in the curtain made of blocks of white limestone from Mount Subasio, there is an inscribed plaque that commemorates the reconsecration of the church in 1726 by Bishop Marco Palmerini.
The interior is decorated with frescoes dating from the 15th and 17th centuries, except for a Virgin and Child, set inside a niche, from the 13th century.
Resting against the building on the left of the facade is a double fornix arch made reusing the stone blocks from the earlier temple, sculpted in about the 10th century.

No liturgy has been celebrated in the church for more than 70 years, and since January 24, 2002 it has been the home of the permanent exhibition Maria by Guido Dettoni della Grazia, by concession of the Commission for Cultural Heritage of Assisi, Nocera Umbra and Gualdo Tadino, and with the patronage of the Chapter of the Cathedral of San Rufino, the Municipality of Assisi, the Province of Perugia and the Region of Umbria. The exhibition was initially managed by Chapter of the Cathedral of San Rufino, but in 2007 the artist asked the people who had been responsible for setting it up to join together to manage the exhibition, and thus the Cooperativa Santa Maria delle Rose was founded, which was later appointed to manage the entire Alfa-Omega exhibition.
Later, a two-meter-high TAU carved from lime wood, the Face of Christ and a marble reproduction of the statue of the Resurrection were added.