San Ventura, a native of Spello who was possibly part of the Spellucci family, was born at the end of the 12th century and joined the ‘Crociferi’ hospital order. Tradition has it that in the second half of the 12th century, perhaps in 1195, he founded a church in Spello dedicated to the Santa Croce (Holy Cross), with a convent and hospital annex, where he spent his whole life devoted to caring for the poor and sick. He was buried there and by 1265 the church had already changed its name and taken that of San Ventura; even today people with bone-related illnesses come to venerate their patron saint, who because of his closeness to the crippled, is portrayed with a crutch in his hand.
The church of San Ventura is located opposite Porta Urbica and is currently an oratory belonging to the church of Sant’Andrea We know from the historian from Spello, Taddeo Donnola, that the church suffered extensive damage, while the convent and hospital were entirely destroyed by the passage of military troops in the mid-16th century. In 1625, however, restoration work was commissioned by the nobleman Cambi, who changed the appearance of the church with the elimination of the tympanum.
In 1656 the order of the Italian Crociferi was suppressed and the church passed into the hands of the Frati Minori di Sant’Andrea. It was used as warehouse for storing grain during the Second World War and was finally restored in 1960. This most recent work consolidated the entire structure and added the pilasters and the entablature, as well as facilitating the restoration of many works of art; in 2001 the fresco of the Predica di San Feliciano a Spello was restored.
The church is double sloping with a bell tower; the facade has four fake columns with a tympanum above, a simple portal and two small low-set windows through which one could see the tomb of San Ventura even when the church was closed. The right wall of the building is higher than the left as the ground is sloped. Inside there is a single hall with a slightly raised presbytery; the back wall is straight and has two entrances to the sacristy.
In addition to a beautiful wooden choir painted on the counter-facade, the church contains numerous works of art: on the right wall there is a fresco depicting San Feliciano and oil paintings attributed to Cesare Sermei (17th century), a fresco of the Umbrian school depicting San Ventura with a crutch and holding a book (late 14th century). On the wall of the altar there is a lovely wooden tabernacle with paintings of a Deposition from the Cross with two Angels and a nursing Madonna; the Sarcophagus of San Ventura, perhaps dating back to the 12th century, is preserved in the high altar. The left wall hosts a painting of the Apparition of the Cross with an interesting view of Spello in the early 17th century, and other frescoes from the 16th-century Umbrian school and paintings by Sermei. There are also two paintings in the church, a Madonna of Lourdes and a San Ventura, dated 1887 by G. Barbi.