Description
The solitary parish Church of San Vito, in the hamlet of Agriano, rises alongside the Norcia - Avendita - Cascia road. It was once the church of the mediaeval monastic cell handed over to the abbeys of Farfa and St. Eutizio.
The door opening on the simple, 16th century façade dates back to 1656. A memorial plaque at the foot of the belfry is in remembrance of the disastrous earthquake of 1703 which destroyed Norcia and Cascia, but not Agriano, thanks to the divine intervention attributed to St. Ponziano.
The interior consists of a single hall decorated with seven Baroque wooden altars bearing outstanding works by well-known Roman painters of the period, and a flat ceiling painted with architectural views, depicting our Lady of the Assumption in the centre with St Nicola and St. Vito. The two left-hand altars show the Crucifixion and the mourners by Giacomo Brandi, and a Madonna and Child with Saint Francis and Saint Antonio of Padova, also attributed to Giacomo Brandi. The main altar is adorned with a beautifully curved painting by Stefano Pozzi within a wooden screen with extending wings. The altars dedicated to the abbot St Antonio, to the Madonna del Rosario, to the Madonna and Child and the Saints John the Baptist and Antonio of Padova stand along the right-hand wall.
Near the entrance we find a baptismal font with a 16th century basin, surmounted by a little wooden shrine. There is a large painting on the wall depicting the Ecstasy of St. Filippo Neri.