The Chapel ofOur lawyer and the sacred Vicovaro: worship, art and history over the centuries
In the beautiful Sala dei Coretti, the Gallery which, from Palazzo Cenci-Bolognetti, leads to the Church of San Pietro Apostolo, and whose beautiful frescoes, placed along all the walls, are still clearly legible and enjoyable, on 28 April 2024, at 5.00 pm, the new book by Professor Alberto Crielesi was presented: “The Chapel of Our Lawyer and the sacred Vicovaro: worship, art and history over the centuries”.
With the heartfelt participation of a very large audience who packed the Gallery in every order of seats, the event took place in the presence of the Mayor of Vicovaro, Fiorenzo De Simone, and the Provost and Archpriest, Don Benedetto Molinari, who, it is to say it straight away, they have favored and supported Professor Crielesi’s interesting project with great enthusiasm, from the beginning.
After the passionate introduction given by the Mayor, which was followed by the hospitable greeting presented by the Archpriest and Provost, the floor was passed to Professor Alberto Crielesi, who, for his part, explained to those present, albeit in brief, the salient themes of his narration, delighting the more than interested audience present with some interesting notes and various curiosities; and it could not be otherwise, considering the conspicuous amount of information, news and rarities, truly mammoth, with which the volume was compiled.
At the end of the speech, immediately after the strong and warm applause with which the citizens of Vicovare intended to greet and honor Professor Crielesi, all those present were given the opportunity to experience and share a heartfelt feeling of deep emotion when the Mayor, Fiorenzo De Simone wanted to remember the memory of the professor’s late brother, the Art Master Angelo Crielesi, by giving him a touching commemorative diploma.
However, we would like to follow up the mere news reports reported above with our own brief review of the book because, in our opinion, the Author offers the people of Vicovara, and not only them, a truly unique journey.
It is, in fact, a rather interesting and challenging, albeit beautiful, journey that the reader is called upon to undertake through the historical events of the city of Vicovaro, and not only, by reading the new, splendid book by Alberto Crielesi entitled: “The Chapel of the Avvocata Nostra and the sacred Vicovaro: worship, art and history over the centuries”.
With a shrewd and rather calm narration the Author accompanies us, almost taking us by the hand, along the bumpy roads of the past of Vicovaro and its suburbs, following a truly articulated path which not only constitutes, in itself, an interesting, yet timely , historical-artistic itinerary of the town, but it is also the narration of a tormented path of popular faith that has strongly marked the events narrated and, at the same time, it is a lively, yet timely, “memory” tout court of his hometown, to the remembrance of which the Author himself contributes not only for the original, important and complex research work carried out, but also by recounting and recalling, with great and delicate sensitivity, well reviving them, his own personal memories, truly still wonderfully vivid.
The entire itinerary that the reader will have to follow inside the ‘sacred’ Vicovaro is marked in a strong and clear way by the toponymy and title of the numerous churches, parish churches, oratories and even the aedicules that are mentioned there; and, not surprisingly, the starting point of the narrative is the Tempietto di San Giacomo or, better said, the splendid chapel called by the people of Vicovara: ‘of the’Our lawyer‘, as also appropriately indicated in the title of the volume, this being, in fact, the main place of the fervent devotion of the people of Vicovaro: a votive chapel which represents the beating heart of the popular religiosity of the inhabitants of the town and its immediate surroundings.
In fact, it is precisely from there that this linked set of stories starts; and it is precisely starting from that fateful Chapel, riding the coils of time, drawing on the necessary information and remarkable news collected among the papers of the most remote and dusty archives, public and private, and, last but not least, among the Reports of Apostolic and Pastoral Visits occurred over the years, that the Author has set out to tell us the many and intricate stories of the poor and the powerful, of saints and sinners, of popes and princes, of cardinals, monsignors and provosts, of artists and their clients, of masters artisans, workers and ordinary people, who appeared on the ancient stage of the City, and marking the slow passage of time, above all, through the alternating succession at the helm of the city government of the most important local families, in particular, the Orsini and the Cenci- Bolognetti.
Not least, then, are the careful and meticulous observations and the different, accurate notations of a purely historical-artistic nature with which all the sacred places are described, down to the smallest details, so much so as to make them even more than clear in the eyes of our mind and, even, to make us imagine those destroyed as present and real, as if, after a long time, we could embrace them again with our surprised and admired gaze.
In short, what the Author, with this remarkable and meticulous essay of his, invites us to carry out, is a long and reiterated excursus in the feeling of the sacred that has accompanied, over the centuries, the history of Vicovaro and the many events experienced by its inhabitants; and Professor Alberto Crielesi, a Vicovarese to the core, and despite the forced distance, whose ancestors were also, themselves, protagonists of some of the events narrated, undertook this long journey, lasting more than forty years, bringing it to an end, finally and laboriously, with great enthusiasm and firm dedication, almost as if it were the necessary compensation for an ancient moral debt contracted with one’s hometown and recast in the most beautiful and liberal of ways.
