Church of San Domenico

The Church of San Domenico, annexed to the Collegio delle Scuole Pie, was also commissioned by the benefactor Notar Santo Cavallo, who specified the saint to whom he was particularly devoted as the church’s dedicatee. Though modest on the exterior, the church boasts the most lavish and elegant interior among the town’s churches, adorned with numerous stucco decorations.

The church has a hall-plan layout, with lateral arches serving as shallow chapels protecting finely crafted stone altars. Originally, several historically and artistically significant paintings were displayed here, later replaced in the 19th century by niches now housing statues of great devotional and artistic value, including the Addolorata, San Rocco, Santa Lucia, and San Giuseppe Calasanzio.

A magnificent Baroque wooden and gilded altar canopy dominates the interior, with a central altarpiece depicting “San Domenico and Sant’Antonio Adoring the Virgin in Glory”, attributed to the school of Paolo Finoglio. On the main altar, two emblems testify to the church’s affiliation with the Scolopi Order, and another two are displayed on the polychrome marble holy water fonts.

The church also houses notable works from the Neapolitan school, such as “The Lamentation of the Dead Christ” and “The Virgin Appearing to San Leonardo”. Other paintings by Donato Paolo Conversi depict episodes from the lives of Saints Domenico da Guzman and Antonio da Padova.

Attached to the third pillar on the right is a painted, carved, polychrome, and gilded wooden pulpit, supported by a rounded bracket and protected by an equally finely decorated canopy. This pulpit, used for preaching and likely dating from the late 17th century, echoes the choir loft above the church entrance, which houses a fine pipe organ built by Giuseppe Rubino.