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The Church of St Roch at Castrocielo: The Picture Gallery That Saved the War's Frescoes
At the entrance to Castrocielo, in the province of Frosinone, the Church of San Rocco (St Roch) has watched over an artistic heritage saved from destruction. It is now more a picture gallery, displaying medieval frescoes taken from two local churches. the Churches of Capodacqua and of Santa Maria del Monacato, both damaged by Second World War bombing raids, and thereafter abandoned for decades.
A 14th-Century Crucifixion Above the Altar
The most important work to be rescued is the 14th-century Crucifixion, originally from the Church of Capodacqua. Christ is in the centre, the Virgin Mary and Mary Magdalene appear to the right, St John the Evangelist and King David to the left. The red-stencilled decorative border on a light background is characteristic of fresco painting of that century. After the war, the church roof was dismantled to repair the village presbytery, leaving the fresco exposed to the elements for thirty years. In 1973 Biagio Cascone, a restorer from the Vatican Museums, removed and restored it.
The Frescoes from the Monacato
The remaining panels come from Santa Maria di Palazzolo nel Monacato, a Benedictine convent for women founded on the site of a 1st-century BC Roman villa donated to St Benedict in 529 AD. The St John the Evangelist panel is the best-preserved and most refined work in the cycle. The style reveals clear connections with the pictorial traditions of Montecassino, the mother abbey, whose influence on sacred art in the valley endured for centuries.
