This was my third time visiting Montefalcione.
Each time, I discover more art!
The "10 Ps" still elude me. The stone is supposed to be by the Porta della Ripa.
While I didn't find the stone, it gave me the opportunity to chat a little with one of the oldest men that I've seen there (who kept telling me to go ask someone else, I think, 😂) and ...
I discovered the amazing pathway, the Via Crucis... which not only took me around the hilltop, but circling back around to the amazing crucifix by the same artist, which I'd discovered in the Commune back in 2013. (Last photo, below).
Montefalcione: A Brief Art Timeline
Ancient world: Tombs and pottery discovered in 1902 are identified as Etruscan by the Comune, although their proposed date of 1100 BCE remains unverified. Samnite votive figures and Roman inscriptions and funerary objects also document the area’s ancient heritage.
1500s — Renaissance: Santa Maria di Loreto houses religious artworks, including painted wooden panels and Lucrezia Spinelli’s funerary monument.
1693: The Ten Ps: Don Carlo Paoletti commissions the Pietra delle 10 P, encoding the warning: “Prima pensa, poi parla, perché parole poco pensate portano pena”—“Think first, then speak, because thoughtless words bring sorrow.”
1864: Brothers Carlo and Pasquale Iantosca of Candida build the sanctuary’s pipe organ, later restored and returned in 2015.
1874: The wooden processional statue of San Feliciano is created.
1928–1930s: Neapolitan artist Raffaele Iodice contributes paintings to San Giovanni Battista and decorates several other local churches, including the sanctuary.
1988: Aldo Melillo’s bronze sanctuary doors are unveiled, telling local religious history through eleven sculpted panels.
2005: Stations of the Cross: Giuseppe Martignetti’s Via Crucis, installed along the Ripa footpath in August, comprises more than fifty larger-than-life figures made of reinforced cement with a metallic patina. The artist donates the work to his hometown.
When you're there, don't forget to click the Info and Activity links to the right of the image!
