Church of San Pasquale Baylon and Confraternity of Sant'Anna

A family chapel that became a neighbourhood church

Among Casamicciola's smaller churches, San Pasquale Baylon is one of the most intimate. Sources describe it as a family chapel: according to the tradition recorded by Achille della Regione in his book Ischia Sacra, it was commissioned in the 18th century by Francesco Antonio Corbera, while other local sources link it to the Mancusi family, heirs of the Corbera. Today it is the seat of the Congrega di Sant'Anna (Confraternity of St Anne), whose statue of the saint it keeps.

San Pasquale Baylon (St Paschal Baylon), a 16th-century Spanish Franciscan friar, is a much-loved saint in southern Italy; in Casamicciola popular devotion invokes him in particular as a protector of women.

History

The year 1883 changed the life of this church too. The lay charitable confraternity of Santa Maria del Suffragio, which had its seat in the Purgatorio church in the Maio, found a welcome at San Pasquale thanks to the priest Vincenzo Piro. This bond links the little church to the history of the Purgatorio church, later rebuilt on Via D'Aloisio and also known as the Addolorata church.

Inside, a plaque dated May 1911 commemorates Giosafatte and Mariantonia Morgera: a sign of local families' devotion to this place of worship.

What to see inside

• The Stations of the Cross along the walls, the work of the painter Luigi Marta, donated to the church in 1844 by Countess Giulia Samoyloff.
• The polychrome wooden statue of St Paschal in a niche, carved in the 18th century by a provincial artist.
• The shell-shaped holy water stoup, decorated with an amphora in giallo antico marble, and the ciborium on the high altar.
• The statue of St Anne, the confraternity's patron.
• In the sacristy, a rectangular marble washbasin attributed to a Campanian marble-worker of the second half of the 18th century and a statue of St Teresa from the same period.

Where it is and how to get there

The church is on Via Don Luigi Orione, in the area between Corso Vittorio Emanuele and the hill behind it, a few hundred metres from Piazza Bagni and the harbour. Sources give the address sometimes as Via Don Luigi Orione, sometimes as Corso Vittorio Emanuele: the two streets adjoin each other. You can reach it on foot by walking up from the seafront. It is not open every day: to visit, it is best to contact the parish of Santa Maria Maddalena or the Diocese of Ischia.

What to see nearby

Close by is the church of San Giuseppe, linked to the care home founded by the niece of parish priest Morgera. A little further uphill stands the basilica of Santa Maria Maddalena, Casamicciola's mother church and the starting point for a tour of the town's churches.