Our Lady of the Assumption of Terravecchia

The church was built by Carthusians in the twelfth century . It was used as a place to pray and as a place to give assistance to the poor. It has been the first church built in the centre of Serra and was dedicated to St. John Baptist, titular of hermits. The chapel was called “the church of the bread”,”Chiesa di la panedha” because Carthusians used to gave the bread to the poor. The original building, erected in wood, was replaced by an imposing-one in red bricks. It looked like the original- one in the conformation and in the exposure towards the Charterhouse with a south-facing entrance. In 1964 some believers, after a preaching by the venerable father Capuchin Antonio of Olivadi, founded a confraternity of Our Lady of the Assumption; it obtained Ferdinand I Bourbons’ approval on december first of 1766. The building was seriously damaged by the earthquake of 1783; it was rebuilt with the help of 280 ducats given by the Sacred Fund. In the post earthquake period , due to the civil and the religious dinamycs , it was founded a nucleus for the church ceremonies dedicated to Our Lady of the Assumption, and the statue of the Virgin was moved there. A wooden simulacrum, by the artist of Serra Vincenzo Scrivo (1794), reinforced the religious identity (damaged by the loss of an “original” that they have lent during the reconstruction) of the believers taking part of the ancient nucleos called from this moment Terravecchia. It was changed the entrance of the church on the north side, towards the Mother Church. The division involved two churches , two confraternities, two processions of Our Lady of the Assumption. The rivalry got worse in august of 1860 but ,starting from the’80s of the last century, the administrators of the confraternities are working together to organize the celebrations dedicated to the Titular. The new church was built reusing “parts of the architectonic complex of the baroque cloister”. On the entrance is carved the date of 1798 . The interior has a single nave, with a semicircular apse decorated with stucco work in fine gold. At each side of the nave are mounted four medallions that depics St. Biagio and St. Bruno by the artist of Serra, Giovanni Scrivo(1922); St. Jerome and Pope John XXIII by the artist of Serra ,Giuseppe Maria Pisani Junior(1977). These marble works surmount wooden stalls carved in wood in accordance with the typical work of Serra “alla filiciara”. The main altar , made with wood in faux marble, and the wooden Cappellone in the Baroque style were carved by the so called “Patacchella” and planned by his nephew Biagio Scaramuzzino of Serra. He attended the factory of the Reggia Vanvitelliana of Caserta (he took part in building the majestic stairway that leads up to the entrance). The marble tabernacle ,carved by Francesco Rispoli of Salerno(1937), replaced the wooden-one (moved to the church of St. Gerolamo). The two side altars ,dedicated to St. Joseph the Worker and St. John Baptist were by Annunziato Salvatore Tripodi(1912). The stall of the chorus ,planned by Domenico Maida and Umberto Cutullè,was built by Vincenzo Marino. The statue of the Virgin is adorned with the crown (called coruna bona) on the 15th of august by the bishop as reported in a memorial tablet placed on the right of the portal of the church. The 8 of may of 1990 the archbishop , placed a golden crown on the statue of the Virgin of the Assumption of Terravecchia. People from Serra is devoted to the church also for the hospitality of the confraternity when the other churches had been closed for repairs. In 1965, on Easter, the church celebrated the rite of the “Schiovazziuoni” and in 2008 started celebrating all the festivities of the Parish of St. Biagio, in particular of the Lady of Our Sorrows and of the two patrons St. Biagio and St. Bruno.