Abellinum romana + specus martirum
Atripalda (AV)
Hidden gemSacred art
The story
At Atripalda the Roman Abellinum surfaces and, beneath the church, the Specus Martyrum: the crypt where the first Christian martyrs of Irpinia were laid.
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More gems in Atripalda
- History & archaeology
Area archeologica di Abellinum
Atripalda (AV)
A few steps from Avellino, the Civita district of Atripalda holds the ruins of Abellinum, with domus, walls and paved streets resurfacing beneath the modern town.
- Sacred art
Specus Martyrum (Chiesa di Sant'Ippolisto)
Atripalda (AV)
Below the church opens the cave of the martyrs: here, after the persecutions of Diocletian, the bodies of the Christians of Abellinum were laid to rest. Squat pillars, low vaults, and the distinct sensation of being a guest in someone else's home.
More gems: Sacred art
Sacred artCappella Sansevero (Cristo Velato)
Napoli (NA)
Beneath a veil of marble that still seems to breathe, Sanmartino's Cristo Velato rests in the chapel's half-light, and the whiteness of the stone deceives every eye.
Sacred artDuomo di Napoli
Napoli
Three times a year the city holds its breath as the blood of San Gennaro waits to liquefy, among Gothic naves and the gold of the chapel devoted to him.
Sacred artCappella del Tesoro di San Gennaro
Napoli
Behind a bronze gate lie silverware, gems and the jewel-studded mitre of the saint: a treasure heaped up over centuries by the devotion of Naples.
Sacred artChiesa del Gesù Nuovo
Napoli
The facade of pyramid-cut piperno stone hides symbols carved into the blocks, while inside the Baroque bursts out in marble and in the memory of the physician Giuseppe Moscati.
Sacred artChiostro di Santa Chiara
Napoli
A garden of pillars clad in yellow and blue majolica, where lemon pergolas and eighteenth-century scenes painted on the tiles keep the noise of the city at bay.
- Sacred art
Santa Maria delle Anime del Purgatorio ad Arco
Via Tribunali 39
Bronze skulls stand guard at the entrance, and down in the hypogeum the cult of the anime pezzentelle (adopted souls of the dead) still leaves flowers and prayers beside abandoned crania.