Acquara

Acquara

The small fraction of Acquara extends on the western slope of the hill Deserto, in enchanting panoramic position.

The name of the hamlet of Aquara derives from the amount of water (acqua = water) that once flowed, from the hill Deserto.

In the past there were two Greek necropolis in this area: in Acquara that intended for plebeians, in Deserto the one destined to the nobility.

The residential area surrounding the church of San Vito was built in 1674. The trail that starts at the left of the church leads to the locality Deserto.

Church of San Michele Arcangelo and San Vito

The church is dedicated to St. Vito. Of modest size, it has a single nave and apse and dome; the high altar is in polychrome marble, of the eighteenth century. In the grandstand stands a picture of the Madonna with St. Vitus and St. Michael the Archangel, of the eighteenth century. One of the two left altars is of the eighteenth century and houses the wooden statue of the Madonna del Rosario, replacing a painting of the Virgin of the same title; the other is dedicated to the Holy Family, to SS. Nicola and Gennaro. It is dominated by a painting of the Holy Family and the Saints, by the painter Antonio Fumo, 1736. On the side of the epistle, the baptismal font and an eighteenth-century altar, first dedicated to Purgatory and then to the Sacred Heart. The second altar, from 1746, is dedicated to the Holy Family and goes by the name of St. Joseph. The parish was erected in Acquara in 1674 at the behest of Bishop Neri. The Bell Tower, after restoration operated by the parish priests Aragon and Ruggiero, was rebuilt in 1903 by the pastor Ruggiero.