Museo della Religiosità Popolare di Foggia

The Museum of Popular Religiosity of Foggia is hosted in the Church of the Cross crypt (or Big Chapel). It is the only national monument to the city, dating back to 1693 and erected in the place where the Capuchin Father Antonio da Olivadi planted seven crosses along the path of a penitential procession. Later a monumental triumphal arch and the church were erected. The complex was built in the Baroque style, using tuff. Currently the monument shows a triumphal arch-portal through which you enter into a field where five chapels are aligned (of the seven originally planned), covering as many crosses. The interior, decorated with stucco from the eighteenth century, has a single nave and two side chapels. Moreover, in the vault there is a canvas depicting the Road to Calvary accredited to the Neapolitan school. In the centre of the church floor, a trap door opens, which is covered by a tombstone with an inscription in Latin which shows the crypt ("Holy Land") where the remains of members from the Mount Calvary congregation are preserved. The crypt was probably the seat of secret meetings during the Risorgimento.