IInside
of the Church from the Pulpit
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Church
and Convent of San Biagio.
The
Monastero of San Biagio, erected probably by Aloara (already
remembered in a document of 1043), of benedictine order has
nothing more of the ancient order if we exclude the
structural plant of the church to one only nave and narrow a
transept absorbed in following one and, particularly, its
pronaos (XI century). The tradition wants the Convent was
built to confine, or defend from the raids, the Norman women
when their men left from the town.
The
Codice
di San Biagio
brings again donations to the convent of pontiffs, princes
and private men, starting from 1050. Its long life is marked
by many events that have transformed, almost totality, the
original order; the last of these, of the second world war,
caused the collapses northern arm of the convent and of the
balcony high bell tower. Of the vast original convent only a
small part of it currently is used.
At
the exterior of the church emerge fine
portals
of the pronaos (XVIII century.) of type borrominiano with
the reliefs of San
Benedetto
and San
Mauro
emerge. The Pronaos, of six cross bays, enters the bountiful
inland full of notable and interesting works.
It
is to remember, besides, that in the inside ceiling
therewere paintings by Malinconico and Caracciolo, destroyed
on August 20th 1943.
The
church, with a nave only, among the big windows displays,
eighteen vaulted cloths, with stories of San Beneditto,
Pietro Martino (1701), while in the opposite
façadethere are five fine paintings of the giordanian
Giovan Battista Lama: San
Filippo baptizes an eunuch,
Santa
Caterina di Alessandria,
San
Benedetto da Norcia and Santa
Scolastica,
Santa
Dorotea and
Sant'Ambrogio and Teodosio.
In
the first chapel, we find an Adorazion
of the Magi
(XVI cent.), by Fabrizio Santafede; in the second, an
interesting caravaggescan cloth, the
Liberazione
of San Pietro;
in the third, the Adorazione
dei Pastori
by Andrea Starace (1767). Inthe following one, a
ligneous
Crocifisso
(fine XVII sec.) (end XVII cent.). The
ligneus
organ
of the seventeenth century follows and, in the sixth chapel
the notable Assunzione
di Maria
by Andrea Vaccaro.
In
the presbytery, on the altar, the extraordinary table of the
Martirio
of San Biagio
of 1588 by Leonardo Castellano, or by Giovan Battista
Graziano, from Aversa, surmounted by a
ligneous
gilded canopy.
The altar contains marble
children
attributed to Paolo Persico. On the left side, on the altar,
an interesting San
Benedetto with the crow,
on the bottom the abbey of Montecassino (end '500) by Giovan
Vincenzo Forli; in the following,
San
Mauro blesses the cripples,
Giovan Battista Lama.
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In
the fourth chapel, entirely decorated with marble, there is
the ligneous
statue of San Biagio
and, on one side, frescos
with stories of the Saint;
in the following, a Deposition
of the deceased Christ,
in Flemish ways (end '500). In the following, the
Madonna
del Rosario
(1623); in the Ia chapel, the Pentecoste
(end '500), attributed to Marco Pino from Siena (or, maybe,
of Giovan Battista Graziano). In the deposits of the convent
till few years ago we could admire the
Carrozza
di Città
(XVIII cent.) decorated in the eight perimetric panels
with rural scenes with characters.
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