Luogo - Religious building
CHIESA DELLA SANTISSIMA ANNUNZIATA
Where
Corso Ovidio, Sulmona (L'Aquila)
The Church of Santissima Annunziata looks over Corso Ovidio, the main avenue of Sulmona: the church was founded in 1302 but there are no traces of its primary structure, destroyed by earthquakes in 1456 and 1706.
The façade was re-built from the start by the carver Norberto Ciccio from Pescocostanzo in the eighteenth century; it consists of two levels and two couples of twin columns divide it vertically in three parts. A curvilinear interrupted tympanum and volutes conclude the upper part of the façade.
The architect Pietro Fantoni from Bergamo, entrusted with the restoration of the interior, added a cupola with a lantern over the presbytery. The plan consists of a central barrel-vaulted nave and two lateral aisles, surmounted by little cupolas. The decoration was carried out by the stucco-worker Giovanni Battista Gianni, the wood-carver Norberto Ciccio and the painter Giovanbattista Gamba.
In the course of the XX century the church was restored twice: in the Sixties the decorative elements were refurbished, while in the Eighties it was reinforced in its structure and distempered inside.
