Further Information

• Domenico Antonio Vaccaro

  Domenico Antonio Vaccaro is known in art history for his splendid Baroque, his many famous paintings and sculptures, and in particular for the cloister of Santa Chiara in Naples, as well as for a series of churches with ingenious and innovative layouts for the time. The main ones are: S. Michele Arcangelo in Anacapri, SS. Concezione in Montecalvario, S. Maria del Plesco in Casamarciano, and, here in Irpinia, the vast and spectacular Verginian abbey palace of Loreto in Mercogliano, at the foot of Montevergine. https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/domenico-antonio-vaccaro_(Dizionario-Biografico)/

• Stone arches

  They ensure the structural safety of the perimeter walls, which would otherwise remain exposed to earthquakes with unpredictable and irregular behaviour. The 4 reconstructed arches are of the ‘semicircular’ type, meaning they have a constant radius from the impost to the keystone. The diameter of each arch exceeds 9 linear meters. This type of masonry arch (of this thickness and diameter and at this springing height) had not been built for at least 200 years.

• The Napoleonic suppression

  The grand church designed by Vaccaro had a short life. It was stripped of all its artworks following the suppression of the entire abbey by Napoleonic edict in 1807. The artistic assets were auctioned off and today can be seen mostly in the Cathedral of Sant’Angelo dei Lombardi and the Mother Church of Lioni. The systematic looting of Goleto’s main church was further carried out by the bishop of Nusco, Francesco Paolo Mastropasqua, who, in 1847, removed the entire facade of the temple, using the materials for the restoration of the church of S. Maria di Fontigliano, an ancient abbey in the territory of Nusco. The marble main altar, the large canvas of Gesù Salvatore (D. A. Vaccaro), the canvas depicting the Madonna of Montevergine (A. M. Ricciardi), the statue (in marble) of S. Guglielmo and the underlying sarcophagus, and other minor furnishings were transferred to the cathedral of S. Angelo dei Lombardi. Also in S. Angelo, the entrance portal removed from the Goleto church in 1879 was adapted in the church of S. Rocco, while the altar of the saint and the wooden statue depicting him were assigned to the parish of Lioni. Finally, various sacred objects went to nearby towns. In Montella, for example, Scandone reminds us that from Goleto came the door of the SS. Concezione congregation, near the parish of S. Benedetto. You can see the ancient artworks reproduced in the multimedia Museum or by visiting the nearby centres of Sant’Angelo and Lioni.

• Vaccaro at Goleto

  He was called to Goleto by the Verginian monks following the destruction caused by the earthquake of 29 November 1732, which affected most of Irpinia. Here, between 1735 and 1745, he designed and built a sumptuous Baroque church with a Greek cross layout extended towards the apse; the church was surmounted by a vast wooden roof with an underlying lowered dome (spherical cap) made with the reed technique covered with lime mortar. The church was enriched with polychrome altars, sculptures, paintings, stone portals, and artworks. The internal perimeter walls were decorated with elegant stuccoes, some significant passages of which are still legible despite two centuries of abandonment in the open air.