Churches of Cerreto Sannita – Wikipedia

The Churches of Cerreto Sannita were mainly reconstructed between the 17th and eighteenth centuries following the earthquake of 5 June 1688 and the subsequent reconstruction of the country decreed by Count Marzio Carafa and performed by Royal Engineer Giovanni Battista Manni. Authors of the reconstruction of the churches were the powerful confraternities and the rich merchants of wool clothes that by 1750 built about twenty sacred places scattered between the historic center and the numerous rural districts.

Both local workers and Neapolitan workers such as the Arienza Giacomo Caldarisi and the Milanese Giovanni Borrelli for the stuccoes, the Neapolitan Francesco celebrate and the Solopachese Lucantonio D’Onofrio for the paintings, the Cerrettesi Nicolò Russo and the brands for the brands worked on both local workers and local workers. Maiolica flooring.

Due to the destruction due to the different earthquakes followed over time and the lack of written sources it is not possible to indicate what had been the first places of worship in the early Christian age. Instead it is historically tried ^[first] That with the conversion of the Lombards to Catholicism the Grotta della Morgia Sant’Angelo was open to worship in honor of San Michele, their protector. The first church mentioned in a written document is the collegiate church of San Martino, of which you are news in a diploma of the year 972 of the Emperor Ottone II of Saxony who confirmed it to the Abbot Gregorio di Santa Sofia in Benevento ^[2] .

With the reconstruction of the country following the earthquake of 5 June 1688, the rebuilding of the churches largely on sites other than the previous ones was mainly performed at the expense of the various confraternities and private citizens. It was the merchants of Panni Lana, individually, who built the churches of San Gennaro, San Nicola and San Giuseppe while the Confraternities of the Madonna di Constantinople (of the high class), of Sant’Antonio (of the middle class) and of San Rocco (of the poor class) built their respective places of worship. Otherwise it took place for the collegiate church of San Martino (built with the money of the confraternity of the body of Christ, the feudal lords Marino and Marzio Carafa and the University) and for the cathedral, erected with the funds repeatedly requested from the Popes by the bishops ^[3] .

Contrary to what happened for the construction of homes, the construction sites of religious structures lasted several decades and sometimes lasted until the mid -eighteenth century. This length was mainly due to the lack of funds (for example for the collegiate church of San Martino) or to the priority of the construction work given to the houses and the factories. From the rubble of the earthquake of 1688 few artistic works were saved as three paintings that were located in the oratory of the Confraternity of the Madonna of Constantinople and a canvas depicting the Homo, dated to the fifteenth century and indicated as the oldest painting today preserved in the country . A Byzantine Romanesque statue was recovered among the sculptures today located in the Civic Museum of Sacred Art. In the churches of Cerreto Samnita the stuccos are very similar because they were performed by the same person, Mastro Giacomo Caldarisi, except for some posthumous remakes of Borrelli in the collegiate and in the church of San Gennaro. The fresco painting technique is almost non -existent, replaced instead by the tempera representation while in almost all religious architecture there are remains of eighteenth -century cerretese majolica floors ^{[4] [5]} .

In Cerreto Sannita in the mid -eighteenth century he stopped the artist Francesco celebrate who made numerous paintings such as the canvas placed on the main altar of the church of Sant’Antonio, some lunettes in the Madonna delle Grazie Sanctuary and the tempera decoration of some rooms of Palazzo Ungaro. A canvas depicting the crucifixion and attributed to Luca Giordano is preserved in the treasure of the cathedral ^[6] .

Church of Santa Maria dell’Annunciata or De Foresta [ change | Modifica Wikitesto ]

It was a sacred building located in the green of Monte Alto, north of the church of the Madonna della Libera and given too much distance was often neglected by pastoral visits. A first quotation of the sacred place dates back to 1595 while the last one at 1686. In 1601 the University donated 6 ducats for the purchase of a bell while in 1605 Mr. Diodara Rao voted to go to Barefare. There was a single altar with a painting with several coats of arms including that of the feudal lord who enjoyed the right of patronage of the building ^[8] .

Church of San Nicola [ change | Modifica Wikitesto ]

It was built in the current inhabited area following the earthquake of 1688 by Giovan Angelo Rosato, a rich merchant of wool cloths. In his will 1708 which stilled the day of death, he decided to donate 1400 ducats to the Church (about 350,000 euros). His corpse was temporarily placed in the collegiate church of San Martino waiting for the construction site to end. The church found a place in the current Piazza Vincenzo Mazzacane and was demolished in the mid -twentieth century. The painting that found a place on the altar is located in the COLLEGIATA sacristy ^[9] .

Church of San Paolo [ change | Modifica Wikitesto ]

It was a small sacred building that had to be near the church of San Giovanni given that until a few decades ago the locality was still called “San Giovanni and San Paolo”. He was from patronage of the Germans Fabio, Tommaso and Martino Giamhai who founded it in the 16th century. In 1686 it was only one altar with a painting depicting the Madonna ^[ten] .

Church of San Sebastiano [ change | Modifica Wikitesto ]

Ancient chapel ruined in the early twentieth century due to a failure of the land on the road leading to the sanctuary of the Madonna delle Grazie. Cited for the first time in 1616, it was immediately restored following the damage reported in 1688. In 1650 before the church by order of the Count Diomede V Carafa the deacon Francesco Magnati was assassinated, guilty of having denounced the arrogance of the feudal lord. The outside was with a hut facade and had a small bell tower in the center ^[8] .

• Aa.VV., Cerreto Sannita: art testimonies between eighteenth and nineteenth centuries , E.S.I., 1991.
• Ancescao Sez. of Cerreto Sannita, Guide of Cerreto Sannita 2009 , Anxescao, 2008.
• Mario Rotili, Art in Sannio , Provincial Tourism Authority, 1952.
• Nicola Ciaburri, The reconstruction of Cerreto Sannita after the earthquake of 1688 in: Southern Enlightenment and local communities , and. Guide, 1987.
• Nicola Ciaburri, Of cities fallen for tremors … in: Cerreto Sannita – Design workshop 1988 , Edizioni Kappa, 1989.
• Vincenzo Mazzacane, Historical memories of Cerreto Sannita , Liguori Editore, 1990.
• Renato Pescielli, Telesina Church: places of worship, education and assistance in the 16th and 17th centuries , Aid, 1977.
• Renato Pescielli, The Cathedral Church, the Seminary and the Episcope in Cerreto Sannita , Laurenziana, 1989.
• Renato Pescielli, The Collegiate Church of San Martino Bishop in Cerreto Sannita , Don Bosco, 1990.
• Renato Pescielli, Palazzi, houses and families of the eighteenth century Cerrettesi: the rebirth, the urban planning and the company of Cerreto Sannita after the earthquake of 1688 , Don Bosco, 2001.
• Pro Loco Cerreto Sannita, A walk in history , Di Lauro, 2003.
• Nicola Rotondi, Historical memories of Cerreto Sannita , unpublished manuscript preserved in the municipal archive, 1870.
• Nicola Vigliotti, The Justinians and the Cerretese ceramic , Read, 1970.