Church of Santa Croce

The Church of Santa Croce stands next to the cathedral. The bell tower of the cathedral itself, built between the end of the 15th and the beginning of the following century, forms a single body with Santa Croce. From the cathedral, you can access it through a small door to the left of the presbytery.It is very ancient, perhaps older than the cathedral itself, and certainly contemporary with the Church of the Rosary. This is evidenced by the rock left after the recent restoration, which bears the carved Greek letter Y (gamma), representing the number 3, the three persons of the Holy Trinity. This rock was the altar stone, reminiscent of Christ Rock Corner Head, on which the church was founded.It was built in the Romanesque style and renovated in the 16th century with a terracotta barrel vault. On the façade, you can admire a marble plaque from 1830 depicting the Confraternity of Santa Croce, which was housed in this church. It was an important, economically independent church. The brothers wore a white, hooded cloak that they pulled over their faces. They were affiliated to the Archconfraternity of the Gonfalone, founded in Rome, and as such enjoyed privileges granted to them by Pope Gregory, including religious week, religious theater, processions, popular festivals in city centers and rural churches, as well as aid to the poor, the sick, prisoners, and the settlement of disputes between rival families. The members of the confraternity played a very important role in the civic and religious community of Tempi. The confraternity's distinctive feature was to revive a symbolism and a cultural and religious activity that already belonged to the Templars and, like the Templar Order, was suppressed by the authority of the Church. In fact, on December 21, 1813, Bishop Monsignor Paradiso suppressed the Confraternity of the SS. Crucified for the excessive autonomy it displayed with regard to the provisions of the Church. From this point on, the church slowly declined, was practically abandoned, and gradually degraded to an oratory, a religious building with an ancillary function to the cathedral. In this church, the largest of the churches, the nobles of Tempio met with the clergy on April 29, 1679, to decide on the construction of the Capuchin Poor Clares Convent.
Source: comuneditetempiopausania.it/chiesa-di-santa-croce

This church, dedicated to the Holy Cross (Latin: "Santa Croce"), derives its patronage from the cross on which Jesus Christ died. The veneration of the Holy Cross largely originates from Saint Helena, the mother of Emperor Constantine the Great (who, after his victory at the Milvian Bridge in front of Rome, recognized Christianity as a religion and ended the long period of persecution with the Edict of Toleration of Milan in 312). She made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land (Israel/Palestine) in the early fourth century and brought numerous relics back to Europe, including the "True Cross," on which Jesus Christ was crucified. Therefore, Helena is often depicted with a cross as an attribute. The Church celebrates the Feast of the Discovery, public presentation, and veneration of the Holy Cross—called the "Exaltation of the Holy Cross"—on September 14th.