The church of St. Andrew the Apostle in Arpino is mentioned for the first time in a document exchange in 1084 and was a Benedictine parish that later became a Collegiate Church with liturgical and administrative autonomy.
It is located at the foot of Civitavecchia di Arpino and was destroyed and rebuilt in the thirteenth century.
Then it underwent a first restoration in 1533, and a rebuild in 1780, the heyday of the city of Arpino.
The final aspect is a composition between the bell tower still in the Romanesque style, the severe neo-classical facade and an ancient and elaborate main door in stone from the destroyed church of Montenero, in a fortress between Arpino and Santopadre where the inhabitants took refuge in case of danger to Arpino.
The interior has three aisles and there is an altarpiece painted by Cavalier d'Arpino depicting the two patron saints: St. Benedict and St. Andrew. The latter has the same face of the Cavalier d'Arpino painting that is in the Borghese Chapel in San Giovanni in Laterino in Rome.
The church also preserves fifteenth century paintings and a scroll with the Annunciation by a painter of miniatures of the eighteenth century.
The church is connected to the adjacent convent enclosure through grates that allow the sisters to attend Mass and choruses.
In the convent of the Sisters is kept the statue of the Madonna of Loreto built in the eighteenth century with paper mache.
Our Lady of Loreto is the patron of Arpino and the statue is carried every year in procession with a machine created by the Alto-Adigean artist Stolz in 1756 and representing the House of Nazareth transported by angels.
Follow us