The very particular Church of St. Maria della Manna d’Oro is located in the heart of the city of Spoleto in the lovely Piazza Duomo adjacent to the Caio Melisso Theater. The church was built by the municipality in 1527 as a sign of gratitude to the Virgin after the attack on Rome by the Lanzichenecchi invaders. In fact, thanks to the protection of the Virgin, the city was not only spared from the fury of the troops of Charles V but it was even enriched enormously thanks to trade with the invading soldiers. This wealth was compared to the manna from heaven that the Israelites received in the desert as related in the Bible. The church has a rectangular shape outside, with an octagonal drum in the upper part. Inside, the space has an octagonal layout with an apsidal presbytery, a form that was given to it after interventions in 1679. In the center of the church there is a very valuable fifteenth-century baptismal font, which came from the Eroli Chapel of the nearby cathedral (Duomo). This church is no longer consecrated; it is used as an exhibition center.
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