Oratory of the Holy Crucifix of Fontelucente

Oratory of the Holy Crucifix of Fontelucente

The Oratory of Fontelucente is sacred place, built at the end of the 17th century and designed by the architect Alessandro Pettirossi, where nature and human work harmonize in a perfect balance.
The shrine, indeed, was built to guard the 15th-century pietra serena crucifix carved by some stonemasons to venerate the spring of water that gushes from the quarry walls and was said to have thaumaturgic properties.

The water flows into a reservoir and then pours into a niche formerly used for ablutions and the worship of miraculous water. Outside, the water is piped into the monumental fountain, housed in a niche, which contains a basin carved from a single semi-circular stone block.

The Crucifix of the Oratory is kept within a crystal shrine and is placed in the apse inside the wall tabernacle by Agnolo Tortoli. A double staircase leads to the tabernacle, surrounded by illusionistic architecture and surmounted by God Father in glory, probably by Antonio Pillori, author of the Resurrection (1733) painted on the ceiling.

The Oratory in its present form, with side chapels and arcade, was enlarged in the early eighteenth century because of the increasing influx of devotees.