Churches & Places of Worship

The first church of St George - San Giorgio in San Giorgio a Liri dates from the late Middle Ages.

It was built by the monks of the Abbey of Montecassino.

It was destroyed in 846 and rebuilt.

At the entrance you notice a stone lion, symbol of the Benedictine rule.

The church of San Biagio is the original nucleus around which the village of San Biagio Saracinisco developed.

It was built in the twelfth century and was restored in the nineteenth century.

The church of Saint Bernard Pilgrim is dedicated to Santa Maria Assunta has changed its name after the transfer of the body of St. Bernard.

San Bernardo Arcanum is an English pilgrim and protector of this town that had probably lived in these areas.

The church was built in several stages starting with a chapel mentioned in a bull of Pope Nicholas V in the 1451.

In 1561, it was enlarged and in 1698 they built the chapel.

The Boncompagni family donated the lead coffin in which the Saint's confessor and the pilgrim’s bones were preserved.

The church has a Latin cross design and its interior is in a sober baroque style.

The old monumental altar was replaced following the liturgical reform of Vatican II that wanted the simplest altars and facing the people.

Inside is a beautiful wooden choir and some XVII century paintings such as the Apparition of Our Lady to St. Bernard, by an unknown painter of the Neapolitan school, La Pieta, the Virgin and Child.

Other paintings date back to the eighteenth and nineteenth century.

 The medieval church ofSt Roch -  San Rocco was built between the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries in Rocca d'Arce.

It is adorned with a portico with three elegant Romanesque arches.

The entrance is on the side at the grafting of the building with the rock wall.

The sanctuary of the Blessed Virgin "Succurre Miseris" is located in Ripi and was built in the place where there was a small rural church and where a hermit lived.

According to a legend, on this hill the hermit took an olive tree trunk every day to carve the face of the Most High.

But during every night his face changed into a woman's.

In memory of this miracle, the place became a pilgrimage destination that venerate the statue of the Virgin Helping the poor and the small church was enlarged.

In that place the sanctuary was built which still attracts pilgrims who come to pay homage to the statue of the Virgin who helps the poor.

The church and convent of Saints Augustine and Bartholomew arose from the request of the community to have a centre in Ripi of the Augustinian fathers of Cori in 1605.

The buildings were expanded in the eighteenth century and then abandoned by the monks and they passed to the state.

The facade of the church is a small masterpiece highlighted by the bell tower of Romanesque style.

The building has a single nave with four side chapels, an apse at the end and a vaulted roof.

The presbytery is separated by an artistic marble balustrade and the church is rich in works of art and paintings of the eighteenth century.

Behind the altar is a large painting of St. Bartholomew attributed to the Polish painter Tadeus Konicz.

The church of San Rocco is located in Ripi near Sant'Angelo gate, also known as the Door of the Executioner.

Originally it was just dedicated to Sant'Angelo, as reflected by a parchment of 1229.

The old church was destroyed by an earthquake in 1350.

It was rebuilt in 1753 under the invocation of San Rocco perhaps to invoke protection against the plague.

In the church are two works of art by Pierluigi Conciatori and an ancient relic "ex ossibus San Rochi" of 1712.

The church of the Holy Saviour was built in 1743 in place of an earlier church that was then turned into the town hall of Ripi.

It has a single nave with side chapels.

Above the main door there is a mosaic representing Saint George, the patron of the town.

In the facade there is a stained glass window made by Rita Mele.