Church of purgatory

Cultural religious site

The church of the Purgatory was founded under the title of the Holy Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel in 1687 by Don Domenico Isaia, spiritual father and cured treasurer of the chapter, although documentation proves the existence of the Brotherhood already in 1684. In 1741, in fact, for initiative of the archpriest Don Francesco Pignataro, the original Church was restored by annexing the rooms of some neighboring houses and divided into a chapel, sacristy and hypogeum environment for funerary use. Outside, a bell tower was raised to a single light still visible today. According to the statute, the Sodality plays its religious work with charity and piety to increase the worship and devotion of the faithful and also takes care of the rites of Holy Week. In the Church, in fact, the statues are kept that every year recall the highlights of the Passio Christi in the solemn procession of Good Friday. The statues were made of precious wood and of particular artistic importance is the statue of the Dead Christ made in 1799 by the Neapolitan school artist Giuseppe Pagano. The Archconfraternity also organizes the celebrations in honor of the Madonna del Carmelo, titular of the Church, and on the occasion of the anniversary, on July 16th, it exhibits to the faithful the Statue of the Virgin with the Child Jesus surrounded by silver tiaras.