Churches & Places of Worship

The church of St. Jerome in Arpino is located on the southern slope of Mount Civitavecchia and it was for a long time a place for hermits.

It is located along the ancient trail blazed by the slaves of Cicero who were brought to the Acropolis. It is a landmark of the landscape.

The original building dates back to the thirteenth and fourteenth century and was known as the 'Church of St. Mary of Nazareth’, or ‘Church of Madonna of St. Jerome'.

Legend has it that it was built by enlarging a small chapel built on the site of the apparitions of the Blessed Virgin.

Until 1700 the church was still only a small cave adorned with paintings and an altar where especially pregnant women went to pray, and on May 1 a special mass was celebrated.

In 1836 it was enlarged and a 'Scala Santa' was built for plenary and partial indulgences, which worshippers went up to their knees and then came down by two side stairs.

Inside, above the central altar there are the relics of St. Vittorino Martyr.
 
 

The church of San Rocco of Arpino dates from the seventeenth century by incorporating one of the towers of the city wall.

It consists of a single small room with a central altar in polychrome marble in the shape of a temple.

On either side of the altar there is a baroque framed fresco. In the church there is the statue of San Rocco with a small dog at his feet.

The churches of San Rocco are found in almost every town in Italy as the saint of French origin was the protector from the plague.

San Rocco is often depicted with the little dog that daily brought him nourishment in the form of bread while he was a hermit leprosy patient hermit.

The Madonna delle Grazie church is located at the entrance of Arpino and has a Baroque style.

It is mentioned in a document of 1463 that concerns the pact signed between Pope Pius II, the Aragonese and the Angevins that quotes the "Ecclesiae Sanctae Marie Graziarum extra muros terre Arpini".

The building was renovated in the eighteenth century with a great door and staircase at the entrance giving importance and airiness to the church.

On the altar there is a picture of the Madonna delle Grazie by the Neapolitan painter A. Russo.
 

The church of St. Anne in Arpino dates from the eleventh century and was completely rebuilt in 1500s.

The church is located inside the acropolis and houses a statue of the saint carried every year in a solemn procession through the streets of Arpino.

The special feature of this statue is that it is actually a triptych representing St. Anne, St. Joachim (husband of St. Anne) and the little Mary.

The church of St. Vitus is located within the ancient Acropolis of Arpino and must have been built on the ruins of a Roman temple dedicated to Venere Conciliatrice (Venus Consiliator).

The rectory is located in part on the ruins of the chapel dedicated to Our Lady, and partly on an old ossuary.

The first official records date back to 1305, for a visit of the Bishop of Sora.

The church was later rebuilt in the sixteenth century and has a late baroque style with a facade attached to a pre-existing bell tower with a sundial and a clock.

The church has three naves and has a marble altar with a polychrome painting of the Cavalier d'Arpino depicting three martyrs. The saints are Modesto and Crescentia at the sides of San Vito dressed as a Roman soldier.

In the church there is a wooden statue of San Vito realized by Stolz.

In ancient traditions during the feast of St. Vitus the statue has been carried in procession, and on that day the animals were blessed while also the exorcism was performed for those possessed by the effects of 'Tools of St Vitus' (St Vitus Dance).
 
 

The church of SS. Trinity in Arpino is also called 'the statue of the Crucified' and is owned by the Pesce family. It was built in 1720 by Cardinal Giuseppe Pesce, teacher and rector of the Pontifical Chapel.

The facade is a simple neoclassical style, and the plan is a Greek cross.

The church has been robbed several times over the years but inside on the side walls are stones carved with the symbols of the Holy Trinity.

The altar has a group of sculptures in wood made by Stolz from Alto Adige, who lived for some time and is buried in Arpino.

The walls at the sides have frescoes representing the Immaculate Conception and St. Joseph.

At the centre of the church is a trap door leading to the Pesce family tomb and that was used during the war to bury the dead of plague.
 

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.
 

The church of Santa Maria of Civita in Arpino was built on a pagan temple dedicated to Mercurio Lanario, protector of wool, as deduced by a plaque which is embedded in the facade of the church.

The temple was built by people linked to the family of Cicero and the woollen industry that was for centuries the main activity of Arpino.

The bell tower was built on a previous tower. On its walls are pieces of tombstones with Roman writings that tell the story of the construction of the tower by the Roman consul Acerronio and the subsequent restoration of the tower.

With the arrival of Christianity the Roman temple became a church where they worshipped a painting on wood of the Queen of the Angels, called the Madonna della Civita as is found from an official document of 1038.

This first Christian church was set on fire and destroyed during the invasion of the Goths.

The church was then rebuilt again in the eighteenth century, during the 'golden age' of Arpino, with the period style, a late Baroque.

The present church has a Latin cross plan, three naves and a large dome. Inside is a fine chapel covered in marble which houses the wooden statue of Assunta.

The statue dates from the year one thousand, as can be deduced from the expression and her rigid posture, and is carved from a single trunk of cedar of Lebanon.

The statue is carried in procession every August 15, the traditional day of celebration throughout Italy dedicated to the Assumption.

Inside the church there are two paintings by Cavalier d'Arpino, who also painted the figure of the Eternal Father in the dome.

Other paintings are of the XVIII century Roman school while there are two statues realized by Mariano Pisani Arpino thanks to which he won the gold medal in 1919 at a sacred art exhibition.

The church is decorated with stained glass windows, a carved and gilded organ of the eighteenth century and the procession machine created by the Alto-Adigean artist Stolz who lived in Arpino.

The church has ancient liturgical books, with 'Antiphonaries' (for choral prayer) dating back to the fourteenth century.

A plaque commemorates the visit of King Charles III of Bourbon in 1749.