SS Apostoli

This ancient church stood on the site of an early Christian cemetery.  16 sarcophagi were found here in 1912 and others were unearthed in 1958.  Seven funerary inscriptions have also been found here, five in Latin and two in Greek. 

The most important of the Latin inscriptions, which is now in Room 2 of the Museo del Ducato di Spoleto [CIL XI 4967], commemorates Spes,who was buried in the church after 32 years as Bishop of Spoleto.  This inscription was recoded in situ in the 19th century, when it was under the floor of the apse.  Some of the remains of Bishop Spes were sent to the Palatine Chapel at Aachen in the 9th century on the orders of the Emperor Charlemagne.  The reliquary there contained an exact transcription of this epitaph from the tomb of Bishop Spes and of another from the tomb that had been found beside it.

• This second inscription [CIL XI 4968] was dated 384 AD and commemorated the 7 year old Tullius Anatolius Artemius.  His family names suggest that he had been the son of an official of the Byzantine Empire. 
  

• A third inscription from the church [CIL XI 4970], dated between 386 and 422, came from the grave of Brittius Dalmatius, a notary. [Where is it now ?]
  

Two marble reliefs that are now in Room 8 of the Museo del Ducato di Spoleto came from the church:

• a decorative relief (late 8th century); and
  

• a relief of the Annunciation (9th century).

The church fell into disuse in the 16th century and part of it was transformed into a barn in 1677. 

It was converted for residential use in 1867.

Return to Walk III.