Church of St Mary of the Angels
The Parish of St Mary of the Angels is in Vittorio Emanuele Square, right in the historic centre of the village. According to the legend, the church was founded after Saint Francis visited the area around early 1200.
This is one of the major basilicas in Abruzzo of the 15th and 16th century. In fact, its image can be seen in a corner of Saint Peter’s Basilica mosaic floor in Rome.
The church presents a rectangular ground plan with one nave divided into domical vaults. Each vault displays a frescoed oval medallion: one depicting the Judgment of Salomon; another Moses Parting the Red Sea and the last The Expulsion of Heliodorus from the Temple. Among the pilasters and on either side of the windows, above the entablature, there are images of prophets and allegories of the seven cardinal virtues.
On either side of the four pulpits, there are the representations in stucco of the four Evangelists. Above a chapel on the left-hand side, you can see a small medallion with an eighteenth-century canvas depicting Saint Emidio holding the village of Bisenti in his hand.
By one side of the central altar, a niche preserves a polychromatic statue in terracotta of St Mary of the Angels (17th century) by Gagliardelli. The local population is deeply devoted to it.
The festivity of St Mary of the Angels is on the 2nd of August.