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Aversa (Caserta) – The city of Aversa celebrated Saint Anthony of Padua on his anniversary with a procession through the city streets starting from the church in via Seggio.
Documented as early as 1231, the sacred place was originally dedicated to Sant’Antonio Abate. It assumed its current title in 1232, immediately after the canonization of the saint of Padua, with the presence of the Franciscan Friars, welcomed into the city thanks to the benevolence of the Aversa bishop Giovanni IV Lamberto, a personal friend of Saint Francis.
The Franciscan temple of Sant’Antonio al Seggio represents a magnificent example of fourteenth-century religious architecture. The nave, modified in the 18th century, is enriched by numerous marble altars, paintings, stuccos, and the valuable coffered ceiling. The majestic organ with two thousand real pipes, built in 1986, is one of the most impressive in the whole of the South.
Having remained closed since 12 November 2017, when the entire convent complex was declared unusable, forcing the Franciscan Friars to abandon the ancient residence, the temple was reopened on 16 March 2021, thanks to the operational synergy between the institutions involved – Prefecture of Caserta for the FEC (Church Buildings Fund), Superintendency of Archaeology, Fine Arts and Landscape for the provinces of Caserta and Benevento, Diocesan Office for Ecclesiastical Cultural Heritage.
Thanks to the availability of the Friars, the collaboration of the Aversa devotees and the interest of the relevant bodies, the church of Sant’Antonio al Seggio increasingly becomes a house of prayer, a space of brotherhood, a place of culture for the city and the territory. ABOVE THE VIDEO OF THE PROCESSION (images by Francesco Di Biase)
