CASTEL SANT'ELIA. - A town in the province of Viterbo near Nepi, in the ancient valley of the Suppentonia. It seems that St Benedict founded a monastery there; remains of the ancient church include ambones and other fragmentary marble furnishings from the 9th century. The present building dates from an uncertain period between the end of the 10th and the beginning of the 11th century and was restored with some arbitrariness by Vespignani under Pius IX.
It is a three-aisled basilica with columns dividing the nave by arcades and a transept as high as the central nave; without introducing any novelty, it revives, with a changed sense of composition, the paleo-Christian styles used in Rome throughout the Middle Ages. Beneath the presbytery extends a large crypt, covered by vaults; beside it is a more ancient sacellum. Of great interest are the paintings in the apse with the Christ in glory and those in the transept with a series of episodes relating to the apocalyptic visions. Works of notable chromatic refinement and exquisite elegance in the contour lines, stylistically dependent on the paintings of the lower church of S. Clemente in Rome, they are the work of the Roman brothers Giovanni and Stefano and their nephew Nicolò.
In the present parish church is preserved the most notable Italian collection of medieval liturgical vestments (from the 12th century onwards). The sanctuary of S. Maria ad Rupes was restored by Msgr. G. Döbbing, bishop of Sutri. - See Pl. LVIII.