Mother Church of San Marco Evangelista #2

2023

On the medieval cardo outside the city there is a lookout transformed into a public park. Next door is the church of San Marco Evangelista. The original Romanesque construction dates back to the 11th century and is connected to the re-foundation of the town which took place under the rule of the Borrello family, linked to the Republic of Venice. The original building was in fact built by Venetians called by Landolfo Borrello. The lack of a semicircular apse and the presence of the bell tower on the bare façade suggest an inversion in the direction of the main axis during construction. The plan is irregular and the nave is single and has no transept, while there are side chapels. A series of contributions from subsequent periods are evident: Venetian Gothic arches precede the main altar, while the portal is Renaissance and the ceiling is polychrome coffered, in Venetian Baroque style. The wooden altars are also Baroque, while other furnishings range from various eras. For example, a valuable statue of the Madonna and Child is from the 13th-14th century while a statue of Saint Nicholas is by the eighteenth-century sculptor Giovannitti. The building was restored by the regional superintendence of fine arts.

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Church of San Antonio Abate

At the beginning of the historic center of Agnone, there is this magnificent medieval church. The simple stone facade has a beautiful Renaissance portal, while the mighty bell tower of about thirty meters stands out from the apse. Entering the single nave interior, you discover a true triumph of splendid Baroque art. On each side there are five wooden altars, precious works by Agnonese artists, containing beautiful canvases. The main altar is a precious polychrome marble work and behind it, in the apse, there is a wooden choir surmounted by a valuable and large canvas depicting the Multiplication of the Loaves and Fishes. The frescoes on the ceiling with religious scenes are stunning, among which a large Last Judgment stands out on the central vault. On the counter-façade, another marvel: the choir with a carved and inlaid wooden pipe organ.

Church of San Pietro

In the historic center of Agnone, there is this medieval church, the oldest in the town. It is very simple, with a stone ashlar façade divided by three frames, with a Renaissance portal and a large window above. At the rear is the medieval bell tower. The interior, seen briefly through an iron grate, has a single nave. It preserves altars, including two beautifully crafted wooden altars, statues of saints and frescoes: a beautiful and well-kept ensemble.

Pontifical Marinelli bell foundry

Agnone is famous throughout Italy and Europe for the presence of the ancient Marinelli Foundry, which is in perfect working order and in full swing. Its origins date back to the Middle Ages, and the foundry is remembered for the manufacture of bells for high-profile buildings such as the Cathedral of the Blessed Virgin of the Holy Rosary of Pompeii and the Abbey of Montecassino. The first official bells cast by the Marinelli foundry date back to 1339, by the director Nicodemo Marinelli, known as "Campanarus". In the following two centuries, when Italy passed into the hands of the Aragonese, the Marinellis continued to cast bells for the various churches and bell towers that were built throughout the peninsula. In 1924 Pope Pius At the beginning of the 20th century, the Marinellis were called by many churches throughout Italy because the systems for swinging the bells were now obsolete or seriously damaged. When in 1944 the Nazi German occupiers, who had been in civil war with Italy for a year, also arrived in Abruzzo and Molise, the foundry was closed and used as headquarters for battle missions. Furthermore, the bells that were being melted at that time were destroyed by the Nazis and remelted to create combat cannons. Once the Germans were defeated by the Americans, in 1949 the Marinelli foundry remained famous for its contribution, and its name was still on everyone's lips: a reference point for the casting of new bells. After the Second World War in Italy, the Marinellis built the concert of bells for the cathedral of Montecassino, destroyed during the famous battle of the Second World War, and so they continue to contribute to this day, whenever a new church is built, casting the bells necessary for new concerts.

Autumn landscape #3

Church of the Annunziata or del Carmelo

The church of the Annunziata or of Carmine was built in 1505, adjacent to the ancient convent of the Filippini Fathers, the last resting place of Saint Francesco Caracciolo, who died on 4 June 1608. It has a baroque rather than Renaissance appearance, characterized by a gabled façade divided into two sides with a cornice, and vertically with four pilasters on each side, with Doric capitals. Both the portal and the central window are in line with the axis, although very simple; the bell tower is vaulted, located on the left, and the crowning of the upper triangular architrave is serrated. The altar of the Madonna is the second on the right, and houses an eighteenth-century statue of Columbus, adorned with a crown, holding the Child in one hand and a flower in the other. The decorations of the single nave show Baroque splendour, with projecting columns adorned with golden Ionic capitals, and a mixed plaster between pink and white. The main altar shows a niche with the crowned Madonna between Jesus and a saint.

Church of San Giacomo Apostolo

The small but precious Church of San Giacomo Apostolo, also called the SS. Trinità was built in the 13th century but its bell tower dates back to 1895. It is located in Piazza Plebiscito, where the main road routes of Agnone converge. The Governor's Palace (formerly the Magistrate's Court) and the Palazzo dei Conti Martisciano (later Bonanni) also overlook the same square, facing each other, with a splendid Catalan portal.

Glimpses of the historic center

Agnone (Agnèune in dialetto locale) è un comune italiano di 4 957 abitanti della provincia di Isernia in Molise. Fino al 1811, per circa 600 anni, Agnone e il suo circondario sono sempre stati parte integrante del Giustizierato d'Abruzzo e dell'Abruzzo Citra, nel distretto di Lanciano. Antica città sannita, è sede del più antico stabilimento al mondo per la fabbricazione delle campane (Pontificia fonderia di campane Marinelli), fondato intorno all'anno 1000 e tra i pochi che possano fregiarsi dell'onore di utilizzare per i propri prodotti lo stemma pontificio. Agnone è una cittadina di circa 5000 abitanti ubicata nell'Alto Molise. Si trova a 830 m di altitudine sul livello del mare, circondato da un paesaggio montuoso rivestito da boschi e praterie.

Church of San Nicola

10th century building, as revealed by a document from Montecassino, although today it has an 18th century appearance. A document from 1083, a donation from the Count of Sangro Gualtiero Borrello, contains the name of the prior of the church at the time, a certain Giovanni, who was a priest, Benedictine monk and "hermit", that is, a hermit living in the hermitage of Capo del Verrino. The façade is simple, in stone ashlars, with a portal decorated with a tiara with the keys of Saint Peter, with a Latin inscription above. The bell tower is a tower with a spire adorned with green and yellow tiles. The interior has a single nave, made up of two carved wooden altars, plus the main one near the presbytery. The division into side chapels shows fake columns alternating with arches, characterized by gilded Ionic capitals. Furthermore, near the presbytery there is a dome, decorated with frescoes of the four evangelists near the columns that support it.

Autumn landscape #2

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