Basilica of Sant'Eufemia, Spoleto, Romanesque basilica in Spoleto, Italy
The Basilica of Sant'Eufemia is an early Romanesque structure with three naves separated by alternating columns and pillars, covered by crossed vaults. A continuous gallery runs above the side aisles throughout the entire length of the building.
The church occupies the site of the palace of the Lombard dukes of Spoleto, which later became the archbishop's residence. A church here is recalled by the 8th–9th centuries, and a Benedictine nunnery was added in the 10th century under abbess Gunderada. Around 980 the relics of Bishop John II were moved into the church, which then took his name until the 15th century. In 1907 Giuseppe Sordini began the restoration completed in 1954.
The church was renamed Santa Lucia in the mid-15th century, likely under bishop Marco Condulmer, and a local-school triptych of the Assumption with Saint John and Saint Lucy was made for the high altar; it is now in the Diocesan Museum. The apse retains only its basin, painted with the Eternal Father among cherubs in the early 16th century.
Access to the basilica is through the Diocesan Museum located in the Archbishop's Palace, entering via Via Saffi street. Visitors should note that opening hours are coordinated with the museum's schedule.
Sant'Eufemia is the only church in Umbria with high matronei, Lombard-style galleries once reserved for the nuns alone; light reaches them through single lancet windows in the same Lombard Romanesque style. In the right nave, between the second and third bays, a carved pillar from the late 8th or early 9th century replaces a column, decorated on three sides and perhaps taken from an early medieval presbytery enclosure.
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