In the early 80s, our family, bought the St. Benedict Church, built in the thirteenth century.
Jointly we acquired the Berti Marini Palace of the sixteenth century and other apartments next to the Palace, in the centre of Todi. Than the idea to create the Hotel Fonte Cesia, our hotel in Todi.
The renovation works lasted from 1987 to 1994.
The Fonte Cesia garden has been totally cleaned up and the Fountain was consolidated from behind.
During excavation five cistern wells were found, all filled with bricks and no water; two were closed, while in the other three, just after cleaned up all and reconstructed the sewers, water has resurfaced .
At the entrance of the hotel, we have the mapping of all wells cisterns of Todi, they seem all communicating and lead to the San Fortunato Temple.
The cave divers of Todi made a dive to see if there were outputs, but in reality there are not.
During the renovation was found also a large Cistern perfectly preserved; at the base there are various amphorae almost completely intact, at the top there are two holes from which water came out, behind this Cistern there is a tunnel and at the height of those holes there is a water tap.
It is supposed it was a fish farm, the historical archive drawings show that, in the Medieval time, there was a fish market in the Fontana della Rua.
Where now it is the Hotel bar, there was the Palace staircase, removed, and a small road that connected via Leonj to Corso Cavour, it was closed.
In a walled niche of “Le Palme Restaurant” it was found a chalice and communion wafers, pulverized just reopened, it is supposed that there was a monastery because it was also found a large stone and a font and an altar in the lobby.
Surely there was also a convent next to the church, as there were prie-dieu and openings on the wall, probably a cloistered convent.
During the restoration of the Church, two ossuaries were found, one of which, the largest, was cleaned up by the Priests, being full of travertine headstones and bones of bishops.
The bell tower was moved from the opposite side of the altar, for the renewal all the original materials were recovered.
On the back wall it was found and restored a fresco of the “Madonna del Latte” surrounded by three angels. It is a late fourteenth-century painting attributed to the painter P. Scarpellini Todi Nicolò Di Vannuccio.
