MUNICIPALITY: Cetara
NAME: Church of St. Francis
LOCATION: Urban center, P.zza San Francesco.
DESCRIPTION: The complex consists of the church and the nearby convent built in 1585. The church, with a single nave and apse, has four chapels on each side.
The roof relies on a barrel vault, with side lunettes (lunette laterali*), frescoed with scenes from the life of the Cetara saint, Suor Orsola Benincasa; the transept is covered by a dome decorated with the locally produced Last Judgment (Giudizio Universale), while in the rectangular apse is a painting by Marco Benincasa, dated 1546 and reproducing the Deposition (la Deposizione).
The entrance is framed by a fluted tuff structure, dated 1632, and decorated with a fresco of the Virgin.
The most valuable element of the nearby convent is the cloister, frescoed on the walls.
SEE, VISIT, FIND: The church is open daily from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.
FRUITION DATA: None
OPPORTUNITIES: The church could be better enhanced if contextualized in a tour dedicated to the monumental evidence of Cetara or the religious architecture of the Amalfi Coast.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: CAFFARO A. – GARGANO G., Costiera Amalfitana, guida storico-artistica, Salerno 1979
