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Abbey of San Valentino de Arcis - Todi (PG)
It is found in the tuderte, in the homonymous word between Fiore and Ponte Naia, where mass is still celebrated on February 14 and the first Tuesday after Easter. Very ancient Benedictine abbey church which even after being abandoned by the Benedictines, probably in the 14th century, continued to maintain the prestigious rank of Abbey headed by an Abbot.
The etymology of the toponym is not exactly known, it could indicate that the Abbey, located on a hill, was formerly fortified.
The church is documented in the books for the payment of the Tithing (Rationes Decimarum) dated 11 May 1275, in that period it was administered by a Prior and four canons. In the process of interdiction made by the pope against the Todini for having conquered Orvieto in the year 1332, among the accused priests there is also the Prior of the church of San Valentino de Arcis. In 1404 Don Antonio Grilli, a Neapolitan priest, was Prior of the church. In 1467 the Prior was Don Giovanni Andreucci together with the canons Biagio Agostini, Giacomo Meneci and Cecco Carletti. Since the end of 1500 the Priors that follow one another belong to the noble Clementini family of Amelia: in 1568 Don Properzio Clementini succeeds Ascanio Clementini and in 1619 we find Curzio Clementini. In the visit of Monsignor Camajani drawn up in 1574, the building is qualified as Collegiate or Priory: in the text the church is described with the walls facing the face and is provided with the sacred chalice, sacred vestments and decorated with a good number of sacred images in the gallery of the altar. Under the altar there was a small window in which the faithful with headaches put their heads to obtain healing. Because of this superstition, the Bishop ordered the tamponade. Giovanni Paolo Marini of Bologna, in the second half of the 1700s, was the last Abbot as the church passed into the property of the Episcopal Seminary of Todi.
The façade of the church is decorated with a small window, placed at the top left and a Romanesque portal, surmounted by a bell gable with a single archway, placed centrally.
The apse is Romanesque, the texture of the masonry, in well-connected rows of ashlars, suggests that it was built in the early 11th century.
The interior, now transformed for the needs of accommodation, has a single room, with a truss roof.
The apsidal basin is intact and preserves a 16th century fresco from the Spanish school, depicting the Crucifixion, with Christ depicted between San Sebastian, the Madonna, San Giovanni and San Valentino, in the background a panorama is a city, perhaps Todi ; the altar table dates from the same period. The crypt, heavily tampered with, opens under the high presbytery, dates back to the 11th century, and reuses numerous remains of Roman times.

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