The “threshold church” between popular devotion and 19th-century architecture
Just outside the village of Tenaglie, where the houses give way to fields, stands the Church of Our Lady of Grace: a place of passage and protection, dear to the local community.
It began as a small Marian wayside shrine in 1682 (inscription on the counter-façade) and was enlarged between 1852 and 1854 at the behest of Baron Decio Ancajani, taking on the appearance we admire today. Its position—visually in dialogue with the imposing Palazzo Ancajani—reveals its function: a devotional sign guarding the countryside and those entering or leaving the settlement.
The plan is a bright, single-nave Latin cross: a barrel-vaulted nave; a raised presbytery protected by a wooden balustrade and preceded by a triumphal arch with sail vault; a square apse.
In the transept arms survive 19th-century frescoes by Andrea Galeotti of Cortona, the same artist then working in rooms of the noble palace. On the counter-façade two 19th-century dedicatory inscriptions recall the transformation works, with “before” and “after” plan layouts.
Outside, the twin-sloped façade is marked by Tuscan pilasters in exposed stone and capped by a triangular pediment; the portal, flanked by two low windows, is surmounted by a small pediment and a half-rose window. A second entrance opens on the left side; at the rear rises a characteristic brick bell-gable.
The first documented phase dates to 1682, when the shrine to Our Lady of Grace was erected as a rural devotional landmark. Between 1852 and 1854 the building was completely renewed and consecrated (16 September 1854) under Baron Decio Ancajani, giving the community a larger, more solemn church—an expression of local piety and of the period’s architectural taste. A general restoration, inside and out, was carried out in the late 1990s.
Madonna delle Grazie is an excellent starting point for visiting Tenaglie: from here you can climb to Piazza Vittorio Emanuele II and enter the village through the Gate of Tenaglie. Beyond the arch you reach the Church of St John the Baptist, Palazzo Ancajani and the AMAT – Tenaglie Archaeological Antiquarium.
A short route that weaves together devotion, architecture and the memory of the land.
Umbro-Etruscan frontier land, land of contested castles, land of a landscape shaped by silent hamlets and rolling hills of olive, oak and chestnut trees.
Fondo Europeo Agricolo per lo Sviluppo Rurale: L’Europa investe nelle zone rurali
The European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development: Europe investing in rural areas
