Pietro Perugino e il Santuario della Nunziatella a Foligno

The oratory was built in 1494 at the wish of the Commune of Foligno, perhaps by the architect Francesco di Bartolomeo da Pietrasanta. It is on the sitein which an Annuciazione had been frescoed that, in 1489, had reportedly accomplished a prodigious event. As compensation for builfing the sanctuary, the Commune expected particular protection from the Virgin for the city of Foligno. The interior spaces of the oratory are scrupulously distributed, and are cadenced by finely-cut marble pilaster strips and frames. The most important work of the sacellum (votive chapel), is the fresco of the altar of the church of San Giovanni Battista, with the Battesimo di Gesù by Pietro Vannucci called il Perugino (1445-1523), that was painted around 1507