Chiesetta di Piedigrotta/ Piedigrotta Church, Pizzo

Around 1880, a local artist, Angelo Barone, who had a small stationery shop in the center of the village, decided to dedicate his life to this place; Every day he reached the place on foot and with a pickaxe he enlarged the cave, created two more side ones and filled the rooms with statues representing the life of Jesus and the saints. Angelo died on May 19, 1917, his son Alfonso took over and devoted 40 years of his life to the Church. By his hand it took on its final appearance. He created other groups of statues, capitals with angels, bas-reliefs with sacred scenes, frescoes on the vault of the central nave and on that of the main altar. At his death, there were no sequels.

Unfortunately, the church was vandalized in the early 1960s. A boy (or maybe two) got in and was decapitated with a stick, breaking the limbs of several statues! Fortunately, at the end of the same decade, a nephew of Angelo and Alfonso Barone named Giorgio, from Canada where he had moved to, decided to return to Pizzo and become a renowned sculptor. He was only supposed to stay in his birthplace for two weeks, but after visiting the church and reducing it to a pile of rubble, he decided to try to restore it. He stayed in Pizzo for several months, working non-stop to revive the masterpiece created by his uncles. The restoration was completed in '68 and received official recognition in '69 with a public thanksgiving in the Pizzo Town Hall by Councilor Mannacio and Mayor Amodio.

Text / Source: Società Cooperativa Kairos

chiesadipiedigrotta.it

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Paul

June 9, 2022

Piedigrotta Church of Piedigrotta

The church of Piedigrotta is entirely carved into the tuff rock. Inside there are several sculptural groups that also set it up in tuff.

Towards the end of the 16th century, a sailing ship sailing in the Gulf of Sant'Eufemia found itself in the midst of a violent storm. The sailors, all from Torre del Greco, made a vow to Maria SS. di Piedigrotta, whose painting was in the commander's cabin, to build a votive chapel on the spot where they would touch land in the event of salvation. The ship sank violently against the rocks and fell apart. The painting of the Madonna was rescued and found intact on the beach. The sailors, faithful to the promise, dug a hole in the rock and deposited the painting there, promising to return and build a votive chapel. The local fishermen, fearing that it might be stolen, took the painting and took it to a cave not far away, which built a small altar. After another storm, the sea entered the cave, bringing the painting back close to where it had been placed the first time. So the fishermen decided to better dig the first cave and also built a bell tower with the bell of the shipwrecked ship from 1632.

A circular painting on the church's central nave depicts a storm at sea and a sailing ship in apparent trouble, as if to confirm the legend. In a 1725 document, Canon Ilario Tranquillo writes that the founders were: Giovanni Benedetto del Pizzo and Antonio his son in 1675.

Between the late 1800s and early 1900s, Angelo Barone, fascinated by the stories of the fishermen, enlarged the already existing cave by creating a church. During the hard excavation phase, he made sure to leave behind some blocks of tuff that he later turned into statues. The work continued until his death in the spring of 1915.

Text/Source: Wikipedia

it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chiesetta_di_Piedigrotta

Translated by Google •

Matto

May 9, 2023

The church was restored by the last living artist now living in America.

He integrated three contemporaries into the images of the Madonna, Fidel Castro, John F. Kennedy and Pope John Paul II

Translated by Google •

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Location: Pizzo, Vibo Valentia, Calabria, Italy

Chiesetta di Piedigrotta

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