Our Lady in Criptula

In Lauretana Square in Toffia stands the simple and beautiful facade of the Church of Our Lady of Loreto and Our Lady in Criptula, the castle parish untile 1507.

The portal is in travertine, with an insricption saying Sub Solo Lateranen, and a lunette above the lintel with a papal coat of arms plaque, inscripted with Sacrosanta Basilica Lateranense, due to the fact that for a certain time the church was subjected to the Chapter of St. John Lateran.

In the tiny belfry, it hangs a bell of 1300.

The Church title has changed over time, and it is interesting to try to reconstruct the steps through documents.

In a Farfense Summary act, dated 967, the Emperor Otto I confirmed the Farfa monastery in the possession of its assets – shows the “Criptula Fund, where is the Church of St. John”, and the Emperor Henry V in the same act of confirmation writes of “S. Iohannis in Criptula “.

In the 1343 pastoral visit there is not any reference to a church of St. John, but it is reported an unidentified church of S. Maria de Castello “which was located inside the Toffia fortified settlement” and in 1603 is cited the Church of S . Mary of the Snow in Solio Lateran, where the Compagnia del Suffragio was established “under the protection of the Virgin of Loreto”.

Even in the1616 and 1683 pastoral visits we can find the church dedicated to St. Mary of the Snow, “… also depicted in a fresco with Saint John the Baptist, while on another wall was painted with the Holy House Our Lady of Loreto “.

In the 1776 pastoral visit it can be finally read: “In the church is painted the Virgin and St. Joseph, and it is subject to the Chapter of St John Lateran … Being once dedicated to Our Lady of the Snows, indeed make the festival on the 5th of August … “

Currently, the frescoes depicting the house of Loreto are mostly lost, maybe under a layer of lime after a plagu, but in the apse – enclosed in a golden almond – there is still Our Lady of the Snows, surrounded by angels and cherubs.