CHURCH OF THE HOLY SACRAMENT
In 1868, not long after the turmoil of the Risorgimento, when the Kingdom of Italy was proclaimed under the control of the church, the priest Francesco Fiorese decided to build this church, situated between the orphan girls’ institute and the civilian hospital. The church was initially dedicated to the Immaculate Conception and later to the Holy Sacrament, becoming a refuge of prayer for the entire community. Protected by cast iron railings, two staircases of nine steps each, lead to the elevated porch. To the left of the church is a one-storey bell tower, opened on four sides by single lancet windows, looking down on the neighbourhood and punctuating the rhythm of daily life. Inside the church, the single nave is crossed by three round arches and ends with the plain semi-circular presbytery where every element is designed to guide the gazes and the hearts of the faithful.
Along the left-hand side of the church, a recess holds the statue of St. Anthony of Padua next to the image of The Scourging of Christ; on the right-hand side are effigies of St. Francis of Paola, a modern Deposition and a papier-mâché sculpture of Christ at the Column. The altars of the presbytery are the heart of the church: three altars in polychrome marble, similar in style and structure, their bases are engraved with reddish crosses, their steps interrupted by small shrines housing precious sacred images. On the left is the painting of Our Lady of Pompeii and on the right, the statue of St. Anne with Infant Mary, a work by Luigi Guacci; at the centre on the main altar is the papier-mâché Pietà, enclosed in a blue arched recess. Along the side walls are fourteen painted plaster tiles narrating the Via Crucis, accompanying the faithful step by step along the path of the Passion. The sculptures, the altars, the whole interior of the church is conceived to sustain the cult and at the same time to preserve the artistic heritage of the community, creating a small, simple and functional space where faith and history are interweaved in every detail.