Sant'Agata al Carcere

Going up via Cappuccini until you find us in a small and pretty square where on an imposing fragment of the walls of Charles V, stands the Church that was built in front of the prison where the patron saint of the city

Published on:

20 April 2022

Last revision:

7 December 2022

Going up via Cappuccini until you find us in a small and pretty square where on an imposing fragment of the walls of Charles V, stands the Church that was built in front of the prison where the patron saint of the city, St. Agatha was locked up during the trial, brought after martyrdom, healed by the apostle Peter and where he breathed his last breath on 5 February 251 AD.

It is possible that it was buried and annexed to the buildings near an administrative building of the Roman city, where it is presumed the representative residence of the consul Quinziano his persecutor.

The portal of this Baroque church is medieval( perhaps from the Swabian period of 1241) and belonged to the facade of the ancient Norman Cathedral, saved from the ruins of 1693; was removed by Gian Battista Vaccarini, who supervised the works for the façade of the new temple he designed, and placed until 1750 in the Senate Palace.

What remains of the building is a rectangular room (5.90m x 3.65m), today to the right of the nave of the church, with thick walls (2 m approx.) justifiable for its custodial function. In the '60s an environment was discovered adjacent to the prison, at a lower level than the current floor of the trampling, consisting of three apses, the central rectangular plan preceded by a small transept, which ends up leaning against the walls of Charles V.

There are those who speak of inferior prison, reserved for those who were destined for capital punishment, or of a Christian basilica or pagan but are generally referred to as the baths of gladiators. These three rooms built with powerful lava blocks and crowned by brick arches it is not known if they belonged to private bathrooms or were not rather parts of a building, home to the highest office representative of Rome, which is traditionally located in the highest part of the below amphitheater, located on the side of the hill of Montevergine.

Outside the prison, to the left of the current