According to tradition, a young man from Spoleto named Pontianus, a descendant of a wealthy family of decurions, was buried where the Church of St Pontianus stands today in the year 175, after being beheaded near the Bloody Bridge. His martyrdom, which took place during the persecution of Christians ordered by Emperor Marcus Aurelius, has been enriched with many legends over time: it seems that the lions inside the amphitheatre of Spoleto did not attack him, but licked his feet; that the burning coals on which he was forced to walk did not harm him; that, locked in prison without food or water, he was rescued by angels. Finally, after being decapitated, it is said that his head bounced and reached the Ciciano hill, where a spring of pure water gushed forth and where the tomb and the Romanesque church dedicated to him were later built.