Churches & Places of Worship

The church of Santa Maria del Rosario in Santopadre is mentioned in Decimarum Rationes the diocese of Aquino in 1308 and in 1325.

The church is preceded by a staircase.

Inside, the altar has a painting of the Blessed Virgin when delivering the Rosario to San Domenico.
 

The church of St Lawrence - San Lorenzo in Santopadre is mentioned in the 1308-1310 tithes and in those of 1325.

Nearby to the church were collected about 30 fragments from Prehistoric, Roman and Volsci eras.

The oldest date from the seventh to the fourth century BC. Among the Roman ceramic fragments, there are two black painted lids of the Republican period and other fragments of the Imperial era.

From these findings it follows that the church was built on an existing pre-Roman and Roman church.

The original church od San Folco was built in Santopadre to house the body of St. Folco.

It was placed in an urn under the altar with the Latin inscription "Here there is the body of San Fulcone".

The present church dates from the sixteenth century and was only consecrated in 1742.

Inside it has three vaulted naves and seven chapels with altars.

Above the main altar is a painting with two sides made by Cavalier d'Arpino, with the Last Supper and the Resurrection.

Other valuable paintings and statues of St. Anthony and St. Philomena adorn the chapels.

The church which also has stucco and figurative scenes, built around 1750 by the Carlo di Cesare from Milan.

The church has an organ built in 1728 by Caterinozzi.

The Romanesque church of All Saints in Sant'Elia Fiumerapido is deconsecrated and has been declared a national monument.

Its origins date back to 1250, as a result of the will of the priest Don Leonardo Infante.

Inside there are numerous well-preserved frescoes of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, including a fine image of San Michele.

In ancient times this church celebrated the Holy Mass on November 1, the Feast of All Saints, which is why the church is called All Saints.

The building has a rectangular shape with a small apse.

In its time, it was a hospital during the plague and then a small cemetery for the poor.

According to tradition, the church of Saint Mary of the Olive Tree in Sant'Elia Fiumerapido was built following a miraculous event.

The name comes from the apparition of the Madonna to a mute shepherdess in an "olive tree" plantation at the end of 1500s.

The shepherdess regained the power of speech and Our Lady asked her to build a church in her honour in an area which was indicated by a row of ants that ‘flowed’ from the olive tree.

It was built in 1592, as reported by the date carved in the altar.

The church is in the Baroque style and in its interior has a nave with six side altars.

On one of these altars is an eighteenth century canvas painted by the Neapolitan artist Lorenzo de Caro, depicting the Visitation of Our Lady to St. Elisabetta.

On the high altar is a glass case containing the statue of the Madonna carved in olive wood and dating back probably to the same XVI century.
 

The first core of the sanctuary of Santa Maria of indulgences was a cell built in the ninth century by Benedictine monks in Sant'Elia Fiumerapido.

It was built on the ruins of an ancient Roman villa in Casaluce.

This cell was consecrated in the sixteenth century to the Virgin of Santa Maria of Indulgences.

According to documents in the sixteenth century plenary indulgences were dispensed on the day of the feast of Our Lady.

It was the second Sunday after Easter, every Sunday in May and on the day of the Assumption.

In 1841 the church was enlarged with the addition of a second level.

The work continued until 1860 when the new temple with three naves was finished.

The wooden statue of the Virgin of Indulgences preserved in the sanctuary dates back to the fourteenth or fifteenth century.

The first construction of the church of St. Elias or Santa Maria la Nova dates back to 1250 at the behest of the priest Don Leonardo Infante from Sant'Elia Fiumerapido.

Don Leonardo built the church it at his expense and he gave funding, books and furniture.

In 1700 the church was enlarged and there were many elements and altars transferred from the abandoned church of San Biagio.

The extension works adopted stones of the old St. Elias church, St. Michael and the ancient medieval walls of Saint Elias.

Outside you notice the characteristic bell tower and tetragonal clock, dual staircase, the plaster façade enriched with a carved stone portal and a sundial.

Inside the church has three naves covered with round arched Romanic style vaults.

One can note the seventeenth-century wooden pipe organ, work of Giuseppe Catarinozzi Affile and the wooden choir inlaid by master carvers of the Mosca di Pescocostanzo family.
 

The Romanesque church of Santa Maria Maggiore in Sant'Elia Fiumerapido was repeatedly damaged by earthquakes.

Inside it retains the beautiful original floor of cosmatesque type, frescoes of the fourteenth century and an altar with a Byzantine style painting.