Description
The church of San Rocco was built in 1656 as thanks to the saint by the citizens who survived the plague. It is the only building that survived the destruction that hit Roccaraso during the Second World War.
Interior
The interior is a single room featuring pairs of Ionic pilasters that divide the space into three spans which are covered by a rectangular barrel vault with lunettes. Behind the triumphal arch, the polygonal apse is covered by a elliptical ‘pseudo cupola’ dome shape.
The room, which is ringed by a wooden choir, is dominated by a central stucco niche with the Saint and a late Baroque pediment.
In the centre is the main altar of polychrome marble. Half way up the nave there is a door which leads to the private chapel of the Angeloni family; opposite a 17th-century stone altar with a bronze relief. A stone choir with three arches houses a 20th-century organ.
Exterior
The facade, framed by pilasters, has a gabled ‘capanna’ roof line. The rectangular door is decorated with a cornice and side scrolls, at the centre of which is an inscription, dated 1743. This comemorates the renewal of vows in the church by the citizens of Roccaraso. Above the portal is the town’s emblem depicting three towers and, higher up, there is a horizontally-crowned, rectangular window.
