Pacentro

La chiesa di San Marco Evangelista, protettore del paese, era un tempo dedicata alla Madonna dei Sette Dolori. Fu eretta alla fine del Seicento per volere della famiglia Rossi e da Domenico Saverio. Il tempio venne intitolato a San Marco Evangelista nel 1915, quando la più grande parrocchia di San Marco, situata nell'omonima via, venne abbattuta per permettere il passaggio della strada rotabile. Oggi la chiesa è sede della Confraternita della SS. Croce e al suo interno è un antico affresco della Madonna dei Sette Dolori.

(fonte: www.regione.abruzzo.it)

 

On Piazza Umberto I (or Piazza Jaringhi) is the Chiesa di San Marco Evangelista (Church of St. Mark the Evangelist). Originally this chapel or small church was known as the chapel of the Madonna dei Sette Dolori (Our Lady of the Seven Sorrows). It served as the family chapel of the powerful Rossi family, one branch of which occupied the adjacent palace, the Palazzo Pitassi-Rossi. This chapel also used to be the home of a rare 14th-century painted wooden statue of the Madonna and Child that belonged to the Pitassi-Rossi Family. Since 1924, this statue has been in the collection of the Palazzo Venezia in Rome. With the destruction of the original 16th Church of San Marco in the early 20th century, the chapel was expanded, rededicated, and now serves as the seat of the Confraternita' della Santa Croce. The 1930s era facade of sculpted stone consists of a miniature rose window, a portal crowned by the Rossi coat-of-arms and a mosaic of St. Mark's Lion with the words Pax Tibi Marce Evangelista Meus (Peace be to you Mark my Evangelist). The church also contains the processional half-bust statue of San Marco Evangelista used on April 25 each year, and an 18th-century painting of the Madonna dei Sette Dolori in which the Rossi family coat-of-arms is depicted.