SANCTUARY OF THE CRUCIFIX OF FONTELUCENTE

In the 17th Century there was a group of houses, fewer than a village, and some working quarries half way down the steep, north-west slope of the St. Francis hill, that looked as though they were about to tumble into the Mugnone below. The place name comes from a spring already known in the 15th Century which began flowing as the pietra serena was hewn from the quarry as so often happens when blocks of this sedimentary rock are cut away. The brilliance (lucentezza) can still be seen as the water is struck by the light as it flows over the layers of rock. On the basis of popular devotion a highly visible oratory church was built next to the quarry that encompassed the crucifix and the spring which still flows inside it and out through a fountain. Inside the church there is a triptych by Mariotto di Nardo from 1398 of the Madonna della Cintola.
Similarly, and in the same period, an image of the Virgin was placed by the old underground spring in Borgunto to watch over the entrance and to spread the belief of the health-giving virtues of the water.

Via Fontelucente, 23
Info: fontelucente.it