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Church of St Roch in Caprarola: the war memorial with the Farnese ceiling
Overlooking the main square of Caprarola, directly opposite Palazzo Farnese, stands the Church of San Rocco, one of the old town’s most significant buildings. Built in the early 16th century, it was radically transformed between 1616 and 1618, when Cardinal Odoardo Farnese commissioned the adjacent monastery for the Augustinian Nuns, who also took charge of the church. Since 1960, it has served as a War Memorial, a function that has left visible traces on the walls inside.
The coffered ceiling and frescoes
The painted coffered ceiling is still intact: at the centre is the beatification of an Augustinian saint, while the larger sections display the heraldic coats of arms of Cardinal Odoardo. The side chapels and the apse preserve frescoes by Giuseppe Bastiani da Macerata, an artist active at the Farnese court.
Painting and devotion
On the high altar, a canvas depicting the Virgin Mary, St Roch, St Augustine, and other saints—executed by the nun Maria Golz and dated 1757—covers an underlying fresco showing St Roch revealing his plague sore. On the left altar there is a fresco of St Anthony Abbot.
