Gruppo BISACCIA

Piccolo gioiello adiacente la Chiesa del Carmine, non si può non notare.

The building has a very simple plan, with an almost rectangular plan, with the left side of the entrance not exactly regular, perhaps to adapt to structures that have disappeared today to make way for the urban road built in the last century. Traces of a possible elevation of the original structures can be seen in the blind alley that flanks the right elevation of the factory. Internally, the Church consists of a single nave plan with the part of the presbytery and the choir behind it, positioned at an altitude of + 1.40 m above the floor of the nave. The presbytery and choir area was subject to severe tampering in the sixties and seventies of the last century, as can be seen from the back wall created to divide the two rooms and without connections to the original structures. The nave also underwent severe tampering in the same years, both as regards the stucco decorations present and as regards the straightening carried out on the right wall through the creation of a brick counterwall and the opening of a lateral niche for the housing the statue of Archangel Michael. Also on the right wall, we find the access door to the sacristy, consisting of an almost regular plan environment, with secondary access to a small street inside the surrounding town. Below the presbytery / choir area, there is an underground room, located at a lower level than the road on the left side, but at an altitude with the courtyard of the adjacent buildings. In this room, we can see traces of a masonry vault, originally placed to cover it, and of two openings on the back wall, subsequently walled up. The roof structure is made of wood, left exposed with the last consolidation and restoration works. Floors and flooring In the basement, under the presbytery area, the ancient cobbled pavement was found, now made visible and walkable after the restoration and consolidation works. The entire supporting structure is made up of limestone walls made with the sack technique, while the horizontals are in chestnut wood or in steel and hollow blocks, depending on the time of construction. Along the side walls of the seventeenth-century building the original decorative elements were found, consisting of wall paintings existing under the existing plasters. They should cover the entire surface of the two side walls of the current liturgical hall, as shown by the essays performed on the existing mural surface. The restoration project led to the original configuration of the liturgical space of the presbytery, relocating the statue of St. John the Baptist, after whom the building is named, in the ancient niche, re-proposing the location of the two access balustrades to the presbytery. As for the sacred furnishings, it was decided to install mobile elements made of iron and wood from local artisan shops.

Unknown

The church of the Dead was built in 1680 on the ruins of the church of San Giovanni Battista, where the cult of San Giovanni Battista was practiced, established by the Lombards at the time of Queen Theodolinda (about 603).

Piazza del Carmine - Via Pasquale Stanislao Mancini, 192, 83044 Bisaccia AV

Today the Church belongs to the Archdiocese of Sant’Angelo dei Lombardi, Conza, Nusco and Bisaccia.

The ancient parish church of San Giovanni Battista (first dating 1557) was suppressed and rendered useless until 1679, when the Chapter of the Cathedral granted the use of the property to the Congrega del Pio Monte dei Morti. The year following his inauguration, the Congregation of the Pio Monte dei Morti carried out a series of improvements inside the religious building, as evidenced by the engraving placed on the architrave of the access door. In 1690 the church underwent further transformations, which involved the construction of a new sacristy separate from the body of the building and the enlargement of the sacred building with the displacement of the altar to increase the space for liturgical celebrations. In the first decade of the twentieth century (1900 - 1910) construction works were carried out on the currently existing facade, made of squared stone blocks. 2013 - 2014 (entire restoration well) The works carried out on the entire factory involved the consolidation of the structures and the superficial restoration of the external and internal facings. In articular, interventions were carried out to consolidate the foundation structures, the consolidation of the elevation walls and the roof structures, the restoration and consolidation of the wooden floors of the presbytery and those of the sacristy. During these works traces of the stratigraphy of the monument were found and it was possible to proceed with the uncovering and restoration of the ancient pavement of the basement room and the rediscovery of the seventeenth and eighteenth century paintings that decorated the original building. In July 2021 closed for restorations after the discovery of frescoes, presumably from the seventeenth century.

The religious building is located in the oldest part of the town, in front of the main door, which has always been called "Porta San Giovanni". The relationship of the sacred building with the ancient urban fabric and its importance in antiquity is testified by the fact that it gave its name to the main gate of the fortified city. In the part in front of the Church opens the dense urban fabric, made up of narrow streets that follow the level curves, up to the highest point dominated by the Ducal Castle, in what is now called Largo Carmine. The sacred building appears today, incorporated into the dense building fabric that over the centuries has come to be determined as a result of historical events that have led to an overall transformation of the urban fabric of the city. During the nineteenth century, the same religious building implemented an expansion of its structures for the construction of the adjacent sacristy, modifying part of the urban structure. Other building interventions carried out on the building involved the construction of the new main facade, carried out at the beginning of the twentieth century, and some internal transformations carried out between the end of the sixties and the first half of the seventies of the last century. These latest works have led to the architectural layout visible today. Above the stone portal you can read a Latin inscription from 1768 which reads: "SANCTO H???TIS TE IOANNI PRISCA VETVSI(?)TAS HOC TEMPLVM ?STRVXIT SACRA CORONA MODO PVRGANTES ANIMAS QVE SEMPER SED LA?CVRAT(?) CVOD TE?ET EGREGIVM REDDIDIT AERE ??? AD 1768".