St Liberator’s Church – Atri

Around 1935 the church underwent refurbishing works to honour Atri’s fallen soldiers. High up on the stonework façade an inscription says ‘In Deo vivunt pro patria mortui’, whereas on the right there is the bulletin inscribed on a bronze plaque announcing the victory of 1918 by the Supreme Command under General Armando Diaz.

The church’s interior presents a rectangular ground plan and has up on the right wall two marble war memorials: one inscribed with 182 names of the Big War fallen soldiers and the other with 106 names of those killed in the Second World War. On the opposite wall, there are memorials to honour Pietro Baiocchi and the three soldiers perished at Ardua in 1896: Captain Aurelio Grue, Antonio Antoccia and Pietro Matricciani. Nearby there is a shrine containing Captain Grue’s sword, epaulettes and bandoleer. A polychrome stained-glass window representing Jesus on the Cross by Master glazier Alfredo Ferzetti stands out up on the back wall.