MUNICIPALITY: Praiano
NAME: Church of St. Luke the Evangelist
LOCATION: Piazza S. Luca
DESCRIPTION: From the notarial documents forming the Perris Code there is news of a place of worship present as early as 1123 on which, in 1588, this church dedicated to the town’s saint was implanted.
The structure, which underwent restoration in 1772, is divided into three naves with pillars and round arches and is covered, in the central nave, by barrel vaults with side lunettes and, in the smaller ones, by cross vaults. A Vietri majolica floor, dating from 1789, shows in all its chromatic splendor (interesting contrast between the very strong orange and the green-blue placed next to it) a floral repertoire that frames in the center the image of St. Luke painting.
Six chapels on each side house the rich artistic heritage the church possesses, including a relic of St. Luke, a silver bust of the saint from 1694, a canvas reproducing the Virgin and Child and Sts. Luke and Francis of Paola, another canvas reproducing Our Lady of Mount Carmel, and a third one with the Circumcision, by Giovanni Bernardo Lama. The painted panel of Our Lady of the Rosary was made by Padovano di Montorio in 1572; the high altar shows an interesting eighteenth-century majolica covering.
The wooden balcony pulpit, with painted panels depicting Sts. Peter and Paul, completes the liturgical furnishings; a drumless dome with a tiled exterior covers the central area of the chancel.
The three-tiered bell tower next to the church, mighty and not very soaring, shows as its only relieving feature a single lancet window in the last register.
SEE, VISIT, FIND: The church is open daily in the afternoon.
FRUITION DATA: None
OPPORTUNITIES: More continuity in opening would facilitate fruition. The church could also be contextualized through cross-references to other evidence, for instance to the other episodes of tiled floors in the Coast.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: www.comune.praiano.sa.it
SCALA G., I sentieri sacri, Praiano e Vettica Maggiore, Salerno 2001.
