Viterbo. Church of San Silvestro (called of Jesus)

The small medieval church of San Silvestro (called del Gesù) was one of the first in the city built before the 10th century in Viterbo, is mentioned in documents from 1080, and hides a unique history.

The simple facade in peperino stone ends with a bell gable with three bells enriched by some marble friezes inserted in the masonry.

On the roof profile there are two peperino sculptures: that of a lion symbol of San Marco and that of a winged bull symbol of San Luca. On the lunette above the simple entrance door is painted a Madonna between Sant’Andrea and San Silvestro (which gives the church its name) and above the lunette is the symbol of the Confraternity of Jesus who guarded the building.

The interior has a single nave with a wooden trussed ceiling and the church ends with an entirely frescoed apse, as well as the areas on its sides. The frescoes were made in the 14th and 15th centuries and frame a beautiful carved wooden crucifix from the 1600s.

A plaque near the altar and one outside the church recall a famous crime that took place in this church.

On 13 March 1271 when the Monfort brothers, representatives of King Charles of Anjou, killed their carnal cousin Henry of Cornwall who was also a cousin of King Edward I of England.

The father of the two brothers had been killed by the king of England a few years earlier despite the fact that he had surrendered himself as a prisoner to the crown, so the Monforts retaliated by killing Henry of Cornwall near the altar during a mass.

The violence of the echo of this episode reached Dante who recounted it in a passage from the XII canto of Hell.

Enrico's heart was brought to London, while his body was buried first in the Cathedral of Viterbo and then in the Cathedral of Orvieto.

All these sovereigns and famous people were in Viterbo for the conclave that was supposed to elect a new pope but found no solution.

The fact that they were located in what today appears to us as a small church gives us an idea of ​​the importance of Viterbo but also of its small size at the time.