Church of San Giorgio in Piana degli Albanesi
The Church of San Giorgio Megalomartire is the oldest of the churches in the historic urban center of Piana degli Albanesi .
It was built in 1495, on the banks of the Gjoni river, restructured and enlarged for the first time around 1564 and subsequently, for urban planning reasons, in 1619 when the apse, first placed towards the east, was turned towards the west. Next to it, in 1716, at the behest of Father Giorgio Guzzetta, the Oratory for celibate priests of the Greek rite was built who in 1759 enriched the church with decorations and paintings.
The façade of the church has a staircase that , before the construction of the Oratorio dei Padri Filippini , directly connected the churchyard with the adjacent Piazza Grande. The building consists of a single nave, with a barrel vault, dominated by a fresco of San Giorgio in gloria, an eighteenth-century work by Cristodoro. The nave is closed by the apse and the apsidal basin houses a false mosaic painting representing Christ Pantocrator.
Inside the church there are valuable works: two neoclassical style canvases, one depicting the Crucifixion by an anonymous artist, the other, depicting St. Philip Neri in prayer, by Patania; a fresco by Pietro Antonio Novelli, father of the more famous painter Pietro Novelli, depicting Sant'Antonio Abate; a painting of the XXVII century, attributed to Novelli and depicting San Giorgio in prison; a recent mosaic, made by G. Cuccia in 1983, which depicts St. John the Precursor; and numerous precious icons by contemporary authors.
