St Peter’s Church
The small country church is to be found around Campovalano’s plain, nearby the ruins of a Benedictine convent.
Founded in the 8th century it was rebuilt in the 12th-13th century by the Premonstratense monks of Saint Norberto. The building presents a ground plan with three naves divided by four rectangular pillars similar in dimension (with the only exception of the third one with an L-shape). The three Romanesque style apses and the first round corridor share the same repetitive pattern building technique that consists of using calcareous and sandstone ashlars at intervals with two rows of bricks. The same technique can be seen in Saint Mary in Vico at Sant’Omero, one of the very few well-preserved churches in Abruzzo dated before 1000 ad. However, the Gothic influence can be seen in the outline of the openings here converted into pointed arch, in the project of a central nave with a crossway arch and in the makeover of the pillars.
Important are the frescos of which the oldest is the thirteenth-century Madonna with Child in the first pillar on the right. This artwork is ascribed to one of the many masters working at the time in L’Aquila and vicinity. A fresco depicting Saint Onofrio can be seen in the third pillar on the left. It is more modest in style, dated early 15th century and maybe realized by the local painter Aurelio Andronico di Nicomedia. It represents a bas-relief of Biblical scenes (3rd – 4th century a.d.).