Luogo - Religious building
ORATORIO DI SAN PELLEGRINO A BOMINACO
Where
Via del Pozzo, Caporciano (L'Aquila)
The church of San Pellegrino was in the beginning part of the Benedictine Abbey of San Pellegrino and Santa Maria, whose properties extended for 4000 hectares as far as the consular Via Claudia and the church of San Benedetto in Perilliis. In the XII century the title of abbey was bestowed upon the church and it maintained its self-government until the XVI century, when the monks decided to desert the monastery in order to protest against the loss of independence.
The original church was built in the eighth century, upon the tomb of the Syrian Saint Pellegrino, whose relics had been brought to Bominaco between the third and the fourth century. The present structure is the result of a thirteenth-century reconstruction, which replaced the former church.
The building has three entrances: the main one, provided with a pronaos, dates back to the XVIII century; the others are respectively on the back and on one side.
The oratory is a rectangular hall with an ogival vault divided in four arches supported by pilasters; a screen separates the presbytery from the area reserved to the congregation. The walls are entirely covered with frescoes representing episodes of the Gospel, the Deesis and one of the most ancient monastic calendars, with the months personified, the signs of the zodiac and the lunar phases.
