Parish Church of San Pellegrino

In the village of S. Pellegrino, about 6 km from the city in the direction of Fossato di Vico, there is the valuable Romanesque church of the same name, where the remains of the Holy Pilgrim rest. Legend has it that a traveler, accompanied by a young man, arrived in 1004 in the village then called Castro Contranense; tired and hungry, he asked hospitality to the guardian of the walls, Ono, who refused to let them enter, even though a storm was coming. Patiently the pilgrim lay down on the bare earth and fell asleep; during the night the storm broke out and the two wayfarers died overwhelmed by water and hail. That same night the young daughter of the lord of the castle, Ermanno, dreamed of the lifeless bodies covered by the mud and dragged into a well-known ditch. So many people came to the place and here the two travelers came, but above all the pilgrim's staff that was miraculously bloomed. Loaded the bodies on a cart drawn by oxen, the inhabitants set out to transport them to the castle; but the animals suddenly stopped in a wood and did not want to move, so they decided to bury the bodies in that place and erect a church. The village changed its name to S. Pellegrino and in memory of that event of the year 1004, every 30 April, the population celebrates the ritual of the rise of the "Maggio": the most beautiful and highest poplar of the valley is chosen, that during the night is cut down and transported to the village. Here, once peeled and joined with a smaller plant, it is raised on the square, where it will remain throughout the month of May. The small original church was incorporated by the current church, built in the fourteenth century, and is located near the sacristy and the crypt, where the remains of the Pellegrino rest. The Romanesque temple with a single nave, has a wooden roof supported by three Gothic arches of the fifteenth century and inside there are valuable paintings of the fourteenth-sixteenth century: frescoes by Matteo da Gualdo (Madonna and Child with St. Francis, SS Trinity, St. Sebastian, Crucifixion, St. Christopher, Flagellation, Madonna and Child with musician angels, etc.), of the son Girolamo (Invocation of S. Pellegrino, Incredulity of St. Thomas), of a camerte painter (Madonna Child enthroned, St. Anthony the Abbot, Santi Facondino Giacomo, Pellegrino and the Blessed Angelo, etc.), of the "Maestro di Fossato" (Madonna of Loreto, XV century), by Orlando Merlini (Holy Trinity, 1490 ca. ) and an anonymous Umbrian painter of the fourteenth century. Also of particular note is the polyptych by Girolamo di Giovanni da Camerino, depicting the Madonna and Child enthroned with Angels, Saints and the Eternal, dated 1465. Of great interest is the Altar of the Rosary with the paintings of the fifteen Mysteries of eugubino painter Benedetto Nucci (1589), the paintings by Francesco Allegrini (Virgin on the throne with the Child and Saints, 17th century), by Avanzino Nucci (Crucifixion, 1570), by Francesco Appiani (Madonna of Mount Carmelo enthroned and Saints Emidio and Antonio Abate, c. 1743), from the Pesaro area Giammarchi (Madonna in Heaven with Angels and Saints, 1799). Finally, note the stone tabernacle by Michelangelo Lucesole (1521).