The architectural complex of the hermitage of the Hermitage of San Venanzio in Raiano, in Abruzzo, rests on the right bank of the Aterno river, insisting on a compact rock mass; the part that joins the two walls of the gorge imposed on a system of three arches at different levels, under which the river flows.
The interior, as it appears to us today, has a rectangular plan covered with a barrel vault: it has two side altars near the main one which is set against a dividing wall, behind which is the old apse with remains of sixteenth-century frescoes.
On the right a staircase descends below the level of the cells where there is the chapel of the Seven Marys which preserves a sixteenth-century Lamentation in polychrome terracotta.
The loggia suspended over the river is the connection point between the church and the places below, which can also be reached via a flight of stairs that leads to the Sancta Sanctorum of the hermitage, where the imprint of the body of San Venanzio imprinted in stone is visible and the seat of Santa Rita.
Words and photos by Franco Di Carlo.
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