Two Special Italian Renaissance Parents

Raphael's home is nowadays a museum. 

'Urbino: I'd love to see...' is the name of the Facebook event I created a couple of weeks ago to share with the Friends of Cama my upcoming trip to Urbino. I was about to visit Urbino last December for the first time in my life. So I asked my Facebook friends what they wanted to know about Urbino or what they had to recommend that they had liked in Urbino.

My Facebook friends responded with lots of enthusiasm as always. I took notes of my friends' questions and suggestions. I did a small research on the web about a few things regarding some works of art I wanted to see. Then I contacted the local information office about museum tickets. It is no longer possible to enter all museums with one ticket. Admissions to places of interest would have been all separate tickets.

So on Sunday, December 20th I headed to Urbino full of energy to walk around town and visit places. What I noticed is that the town is very well preserved. Downtown Urbino is a Unesco site since 1998. Downtown Urbino is embraced by the Ducal Palace and is also known indeed as 'the town shaped like a palace'. The feeling is like being in the Medieval and Renaissance era.

The plaque dedicated to Raphael on his home in Urbino 

On many downtown residences, plaques are remembering famous people who were born in Urbino, among which the most important of all is Italian Renaissance artist Raphael (1483-1520). Raphael's home was on my list of places to visit in order to answer a specific question coming from a Japanese friend of mine. I wanted to come back from Urbino fulfilling my friend's curiosity.

Upon my arrival, I felt immediately loved. The first place I entered was the church of St. Catherine of Alexandria. Nuns were entering from the opposite doors for their daily hymns and they invited me to sing with them. They handed me their prayers book and I felt honored to participate. What a beautiful welcoming to Urbino. At the end of the prayers, I left the church of St. Catherine of Alexandria and continued on my left. I arrived at the Ducal Palace entrance to the Galleria Nazionale Delle Marche. I passed by several universities, among which the university for foreign languages, as Urbino, is also well known as a university town. However, I left the visit to the Galleria Nazionale Delle Marche as my last visit on the way back to the car.

Raphael, St. Catherine of Alexandria, 1500-1503 Galleria Nazionale Delle Marche,
Ducal Place, Urbino 

This is the summary of the places I visited in order of appearance: 1. Church of St. Catherine of Alexandria 2. Oratorio di San Giovanni 3. Oratorio di San Giuseppe 4. Church of St. Francis 5. Raphael's monument 6. National Art Gallery at the Ducal Palace 7. Cathedral ---> it took me about 6 hours total including a stop at a local restaurant making exquisite 'Crescia', the stuffed local thin and crunchy bread whose tradition goes back to the 15th century.

But...the most important place where I could get some pieces of information for my friend from Japan is missing from my list. It's Raphael's home. Indeed Raphel's home is closed to visitors on Sunday afternoon. It's open 10:00am-1pm only on Sundays. What a disappointment when I found this out. I would never think of such an important place closed on Sunday. However, not everything was lost. At the end of the street where Raphael's home is located up on the hill, I could admire the beautiful monument that was dedicated to Raphael and celebrate the artist's 400th birth anniversary. The Latin writing on three of the monument's sides says Virtuti Post Fata (tr. to excellence after death). Each word is written separately on each side. 

URBINO- Raphael's monument in the gardens overlooking Via Raffaello,
where Raphael's home is located. 

But this is not exactly what made it up for the missed visit to Raphael's home. I wish to share with you the unique discovery that opened up my heart and enriched my visit to Urbino. The last place I visited before meaning to go to Raphael's home is the church of St. Francis. I entered the church just because of the name and inside I found out that Raphael's parents were buried there. So I started searching for the tomb's stone tile. No way I could find it. There were all sorts of noble personalities buried in the church in a couple of rows from the altar to the main entrance door. Kind of hard to read the stone tiles sometimes as benches have been placed over them. However, if I could not read the persons' names I could see a noble family crest. Therefore it was not Raphael's parents. 

I didn't give up and in the end, when checking the horizontal area along with the three entrance doors, almost abandoning my hopes as a large nativity was covering most of the floor, I found out that I had stepped into the tomb when entering the church. Indeed Raphael's parents' tomb is located right at the left entrance of St. Francis church. Raphael's parents were there! 

It was such a moving moment. What an honor for them. What a beautiful homage to Raphael. So I will have to drive to Urbino again to complete my research but I will make sure to pay a visit to Raphael's parents in the church of st. Francis first. That's actually where my next visit to Urbino will start to make sure I won't miss my visit to Raphael's home.  

Joannis Sanctis and Magliae Ciarlae were Raphael's parents. They are buried in the church of St. Francis located near their family home on Via Raffaello, originally Urbino's arts &crafts neighborhood.

Find out more about this post's story on the Facebook event's link ---> stay tuned for my next trip to Urbino with a special tour companion!  

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