Santa Margherita, Minor basilica in Cortona, Italy.
Santa Margherita is a neo-Gothic Roman Catholic basilica just outside Cortona, at the intersection of Via delle Santucce and Via Sant'Margherita, on a hill below the Fortezza Medicea. The present Gothic Revival building is the work of Enrico Presenti and Mariano Falcini, with a facade designed by Domenico Mirri and completed by Giuseppe Castellucci. Only the choir and the second and third vaults of the central nave survive from the earlier church.
After the death of Margaret of Cortona in 1297, a new church was built on the site of the older San Basilio, with architect Giovanni Pisano involved in the early work. The building was rebuilt and reshaped several times over the centuries and received its current appearance in the 19th century.
The church is dedicated to Margaret of Cortona, a Franciscan tertiary who died in 1297 in a room behind the old church, roughly where the third altar on the left now stands. A 13th-century wooden crucifix on the right, brought from San Francesco in Cortona, is said to be the one she prayed before. Her body lies in a silver casket of 1774 at the main altar.
The church stands at the junction of Via delle Santucce and Via Sant Margherita, on the hill just below the Medici Fortress, so the approach climbs through the upper town. The bell tower of 1650 and the Franciscan monastery stand behind the church. The interior is entered from the facade completed by Giuseppe Castellucci.
The church was elevated to the status of a minor basilica in 1927. Behind it stand a bell tower dated 1650 and a monastery of the Franciscan Order, and the building sits on a hill just below the Fortezza Medicea, at the crossing of Via delle Santucce and Via Santa Margherita.
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