CHIESA SANTISSIMA ANNUNZIATA

HOLY ANNUNCIATION CHURCH

Located in the square named after General Avitabile, it elegantly closes, with its sober facade, the backstage that corners the ancient entrance to the stables of General Avitabile’s castle. The church, dedicated to Holy Annunciation was built on the site of the destroyed small temple dedicated to S. Lazarus , the earliest records of which date back to 1484. Ecclesiastical-administrative records show that in 1605 it housed the congregation of the Blessed Sacrament, which about a century later enclosed the two congregations of the Rosary and the Dead. The sacred factory was endowed with chapels of lay patronage, belonging to the most influential noble families of S. Lazzaro. Following the laws of suppression of religious orders, dating back to the dawn of the 19th century, some sacred furnishings from the historic Cospiti Convent were transferred here in 1812 at the behest of Mayor Tommaso Acampora. Until a few years ago, a small shrine was placed at the base of the bell tower, originally housing four wooden crosses, and then a cross donated by a private individual to the church was set there, which, now removed from its original place, stands on the church’s high altar.

Description and artwork

Period: uncertain

It is made by three wide naves bordered by elegant piers that set round arches. The side chapels show, on the left, an altar with a shrine where is the sculpture of Christ Deposed and, on the right, a marble altar surmounted by a niche housing the statue of St. Gregory and on the right wall the statue depicting St. Francis, from the destroyed Cospiti convent. To the right of the main wing is placed, on a metal pedestal, a double-sided marble cross, dating from the 14th century, also from the Franciscan convent. On the side altars are some canvases by unknown authors from the late 18th to early 19th centuries. At the entrance a holy water font from medieval times.