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Church of St Lucy in Vico at Caprarola: A Medieval Building on Lake Vico
The Church of Santa Lucia in Vico is located on the eastern shore of Lake Vico, along the Valle di Vico provincial road, in the territory of Caprarola. The first documentary evidence dates back to 1585, the year of construction of the adjacent presbytery, but the original core is probably of medieval origin. The building has a single nave with a bell gable. The current structure is the result of the merger of two building sections, reconstructed in the second half of the 16th century.
The Frescoes and the 16th-Century Painting
The interior houses 19th- and 20th-century frescoes and the remains of older pictorial layers from the 16th-17th centuries. On the high altar, restored in 2006, a 16th-century mural painting was brought to light depicting the crucified Jesus flanked by the Madonna, St John, St Lucy and St Stephen. The parish has never been closed, despite the progressive depopulation of the village of Vico, and is today under the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of Ronciglione.
The Tragedy of 1900 and the Farnese Fountain
A plaque on the façade commemorates 14 May 1900: during the feast of St Lucy, two large barges sank in the lake and forty young people from Ronciglione drowned. A few metres from the church there is a fountain in peperino stone datable between 1601 and 1622, with the two coats of arms of Cardinal Odoardo Farnese and Duke Ranuccio Farnese next to a lily in relief.
