CAPPELLA SANT’ANNA
SANT’ANNA CHAPEL
It has a rectangular shape, raised on the backside wall with a niche for bells. This chapel of patronage of the family of Cardinal Lorenzo of Brancati Barons was founded in 1623 by Baron Bartolomeo Brancati, whose tombstone is preserved in the aristocratic chapel. Tradition has it that a member of this family was a cardinal who lived in the second half of the seventeenth century.
The only cardinal with that surname and who lived during that period appears to be Lorenzo Brancati born in 1612 to Marcello, a Neapolitan lawyer and Dorotea Serubbia, a Lucanian. Lorenzo Brancati born in Lauria, a small inland town, went down in history as ” the Lucanian Franciscan one step away from the papacy.”
In the past, for a time, there were those in Agerola who thought Lorenzo Brancati was Agerolese and not Laurian. In fact, the Brancati family was referred to as the “house of Papis.” However, the partial disappointment was rewarded by the prestigious presence of that lineage. Likely some members of the Brancati family emigrated inland including Marcello himself, father of the future cardinal. And this is perhaps how the union between the cardinal of Lauria and Baron Bartolomeo Brancati of Agerola began. Gianfrancesco Maria Brancati became cardinal in 1681 and died in 1683. From what is known about his family, it can be deduced that they did not live in good financial condition, so much so that the father was not even able to pay for his son’s studies as a young man. Surely the cardinal must have had very close relations with Agerola and the descendants of the Brancati family.
Description and artwork
Period: 17th century
Two small masterpieces , from Naples Golden Age of painting, are preserved inside the chapel:
- a canvas depicting the Holy Family with St. Anne, St. Joachim and the Eternal Father dated 1664 and signed by the Sicilian painter Michele Ragolia;
- another canvas, also by Ragolia, featuring St. Peter and the Brancati Family Patron Saints the dated around 1681 in which the figure of the young Cardinal Brancati can be seen.
