St. Biagio’s Church or "Matrice"

St. Biagio’s Church, also called "Matrice" Church because it is considered the mother of all churches, was rebuilt in 1795 on the project of the Serrese architect Biagio Scaramuzzino with a façade in local granite. It still preserves in its nave four beautiful statues from the old Charterhouse that portray respectively St. Bruno, Our Lady with the Infant Jesus, St. Stephen and St. John the Baptist.

The first two statues were realized in 1611 and attributed to the German sculptor David Muller; the other two, even though from the same period, belong to Sicilian artists.

Very imposing is also the wooden pulpit realized by a Serrese cabinet-maker whose real name is unknown, but who was nicknamed “Patacchella”, near the end of the XVIII century. The work was realized with a special artisan technique called “veneering”, according to which many thin layers of valuable wood were put together and held by small wedges in order to give the idea of a mosaic.

Significant is also the presence of a reliquary given to St. Bruno by the countess Adelaide, second wife of Ruggiero the Norman, where the precious piece of Christ’s cross is preserved with other relics. In the left aisle there is, as well, a wooden cross realized shortly before the 1783 earthquake by the Serrese artist Antonio Scrivo; the statue was stolen by the inhabitants of old Monteleone, now Vibo Valentia, together with four other small statues that enriched the Fanzaghian tabernacle of Our Lady of Sorrows’ Church. The artist, in May of 1810, was given permission by the viceroy Gioacchino Murat to bring it back to Serra during a night’s walk. According to a legend, the artist, after having sawn the arms, loaded the statue in a sack and set off for his town. But, once arrived near Serra, the artist, tired by now, was taken by an unwell feeling and died.

Other works from the old Charterhouse like the low altars in the aisles and the marble balustrades surround the artistic high altar realized in Serra’s artisan-workshops like the tabernacle by the Scrivo brothers. Behind the chancel are placed two very beautiful canvases: the Trinity and Carthusian Saints by Francesco Caivano and the Lapidation of St. Stephen attributed to Bernardino Poccetti.

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Our Lady of Sorrows’ Church
http://www.settedolori.org/

Our Lady of Sorrows’ Church was built on the project of the Serrese architect Biagio Scaramuzzino in 1721.

It has a semi-elliptic façade in local granite blocks against a beautiful bronze main door realized in 1961 by the Serrese artist Giuseppe Maria Pisani that contains panels portraying Our Lady’s seven sorrows.

This church, that is a tangible example of Calabria’s late baroque architecture, has an interior enriched by the presence of stucco works and decorations and lodges the seventeenth-century-marble ciborium with a wonderful temple-shaped tabernacle in marble, semi-precious stones and silver, realized by the Bergamascan architect Cosimo Fanzago for the Carthusian conventual church. After the 1783 earthquake, the ciborium was recovered and adapted to the vault of the church where it is still present.

Very particular is also the seventeenth-century-Christ from the old Charterhouse that is carried in procession on Holy Saturday on the so-called “naca”, a sepulchral bed prepared every year according to an aesthetic style new in form and colours in accordance with the inspiration of its creators.

On the sides of the high altar, two altars from the old Charterhouse stand out. Above them are placed two altar-pieces that portray on one side the passing away of St. Anne from the Roman school in 1642 and on the other side the Apparition of the Virgin Mary to St. Bruno by Paolo De Matteis in 1721.

Of considerable artistic value is the seventeenth-century-balustrade in open marble realized by Neapolitan marble-masters.

Admirable, as well, are the four marble medallions on stalls portraying St. Bruno, St. Gennaro, St. Peter and St. Paul.

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Our Lady of the Assumption’s Church of Terravecchia
http://www.arciconfterravecchia.info/

In Our Lady of the Assumption’s Church of Terravecchia, realized with a façade in granite blocks of different dimensions, stand out a wooden high altar painted in false marble from the Serrese workshop of the Scaramuzzinos in the end of the seventeenth century and two lateral altars realized by the Serrese cabinet-maker Salvatore Tripodi; behind the altar one can admire two canvases portraying the Annunciation, which dates back to the beginning of the seventeenth century, and St. Bruno, which dates back to the end of the sixteenth century.

The church lodges one of the three lay confraternities that are very active in the administration of the church and in the philanthropist services among the most needy.

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Our Lady of the Assumption’s Church of Spinetto

Our Lady of the Assumption’s Church of Spinetto was realized after the 1783 earthquake on the project of the Serrese poet Bruno Pelaggi.

The church lodges an important high altar inside which is placed the beautiful wooden statue of Our Lady of the Assumption realized in Naples around the end of the seventeenth century. Before the earthquake the statue was kept in Our Lady of the Assumption’s Church of Terravecchia but, after the cataclysm, it was brought to the church where it is today. In the early years of the nineteenth century another statue was realized, maybe by the artist Antonio Scrivo, and placed in Our Lady of the Assumption’s Church of Terravecchia.

Both statues are carried in procession in the two districts of the town on August the fifteenth of every year.

In the aisles stand out a series of low altars with wooden statues realized in the various Serresi workshops by artists like Antonio Scrivo and Raffele Regio.

Of particular importance is the wooden cross by Antonio Scrivo that makes an impression for its majesty and expressiveness.

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St. Jerome

It’s origin should go back to the period following the 1783 earthquake (the cited Tromby doesn’t mention it) and was probably built because the earthquake had destroyed St. Lawrence’s. On a step of the church’s altar is carved the year 1280. It is almost certain that this step belonged to the nearby St. Lawrence’s Church. It was restructured in 1994 with the contribution of all the district’s inhabitants and of many others that worked or contributed in various ways. Inside there are paintings of eighteenth-century-Serrese artists.

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St. Rocco’s Church

Immersed in the vegetation of the opposite park is St. Rocco’s Church located at the northern entrance of Serra.

Its position, the simplicity of its architectural forms and the surrounding evergreen make this church suggestive and attractive to the eye.

The aisle-less interior lodges St. Rocco’s statue to whom a folk festivity is dedicated the night of August the sixteenth.

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"Chiesuleda"

Situated on Corso Umberto I, it belonged to a wealthy family of Serra San Bruno; in the nineties it was given as a gift to the parish of Our Lady of the Assumption Church of Spinetto. Its origin goes back to the period following the 1783 earthquake and is dedicated to Our Lady.

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Santuario di Santa Maria nel Bosco

Immersed among the centuries-old fir trees and young beeches, the complex of St. Mary’s Sanctuary is Serra San Bruno’s place of greatest tourist and religious appeal.
In the summer, thousands of visitors restore themselves in the localities where St. Bruno of Cologne spent the last ten years of his life and died.
The place, that was visited by Pope John Paul II in 1984 and that lodged a wonderful Eucharistic celebration by the Pontiff, is formed by a large square on the right of which is “St. Bruno’s pond” in which the saint would immerse himself in order to offer God his repentance.
Going up the granite stairway, realized in the fifties by Serra’s last stone-cutters, one reaches St. Mary’s Sanctuary rebuilt after the 1783 earthquake on the ruins of the old church ordered by St. Bruno to gather the monks in prayer. The church’s interior has very simple lines and some works of art from the old Charterhouse, whereas on the high altar stands out a nineteenth-century-wooden statue portraying St. Mary.
On the opposite side of the Sanctuary, we find “St. Bruno’s dormitory”, probably the place where the saint would find refuge, but certainly the place where the monk was buried. Inside the dormitory is also a beautiful marble statue from the late eighteenth century realized by Stephen Pisani.

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