Description

The Church of San Giovanni stands roughly one hundred meters from the town at an ancient crossroads, Valcaldara, in view of Mt. Ventosola and the convent of Montesanto.

It displays an ogival portal with two fourteenth-century columns, which opens on the side which was reinforced in the eighteenth century using Roman materials as well.

The interior has a single nave with a gabled vault roof, divided into two bays, plus the presbytery. Masonry seats run all the way round.  To the right is a fourteenth-century fragment (Madonna dei Raccomandati), St. John the Baptist and St. George on horseback (15th century). The presbytery holds the Crowning of the Virgin Mary and the back wall has St. Peter with the keys, painted over an older, identical subject. All the 16th-century frescoes are by Sparapane.

The presbytery consists of a rare ciborium with three arches supported by two octagonal columns with a knot in the shaft and leafy capitals from the end of the 14th century.  A delicate Madonna on the throne with Child and the Saints, John the Baptist and Catherine is a work by Francesco Sparane dating back to the beginning of the 16th century. Near the door, the remains of a Madonna and Child by the same artist are visible. This is the artist who gave us the image of the Madonna of Cascia outside Norcia (beginning of the 15th century).

The sacristy was completely frescoed by local artists between the 15th and 16th century. A figure of Christ giving his blessing and surrounded by an aureole remains on the vault. There is also a fragment of the Resurrection high up, various paintings of the Madonna and Child, a front facing St. Anthony Abbot, a 15th-century St. Lucy and a wall with faded 16th-century images.