Chiesa del Purgatorio

The Church of the Purgatory of Savignano Irpino stands in Corso Vittorio Emanuele, on the main street of the town known as one of "Italy's Most Beautiful Villages", near Orsini Palace, the current municipal headquarters.

Built in the early 19th century, it owes its name to a wooden skull placed at its entrance, used to receive offerings through a slot for the management of the cult dedicated to the memory of the souls in Purgatory. It has been renovated several times, following the various earthquakes that have struck the Cervaro Valley in the last two hundred years. 
Originally, the religious building must have been part of a larger complex that included two adjoining chapels, but with independent entrances, one of which was dedicated to the souls in Purgatory and the other to Saint Roch. Each of them probably belonged to a specific brotherhood of the same name.

Today, the Church of the Purgatory consists of two parts: the presbytery and the liturgical hall. 
The presbytery is enriched by a wall altar of polychrome marble, crowned by a niche housing the precious 18th-century statue of the Immaculate Virgin. A tempera painting was made on the semicircular ceiling of the apse in the early 20th century, but it was lost due to water infiltration and has not been recovered, except for the central image of the Virgin Mary.  
The liturgical hall consists of a single nave, with two small side chapels with polychrome marble altars and statues of Saint Michael and the Madonna of Mount Carmel. Finally, the bas-relief on the vault depicting the Archangel fighting Lucifer, framed by medallions with the four Evangelists, is worthy of note.

Reopened for worship on 16 April 2019, through a solemn ceremony celebrated by the Bishop of Ariano Irpino-Lacedonia, Mgr Sergio Melillo, the Church of the Purgatory is a place of worship particularly dear to the local community.