SANT’AGNELLO

Between rocky coasts suspended in the air, marine and hilly neighbourhoods, it is the smallest district of the Coast and the greenest one. 

The name comes from the patron saint, protector of pregnant women and pregnant animals, a Benedictine monk to whom the Church of Sant’Agnello is dedicated, with three naves. There, important art works of Giuseppe Castellano (Luca Giordano’s pupil) are kept, among which three paintings for the ceiling of the central nave: the Last Supper, the Trinity and the Washing of the Feet. The village is the headquarter of three lay confraternities. The most ancient is the “Arciconfraternita del Santissimo Sacramento e Natività di Maria” (Archconfraternity of the Holy Sacrament and the Nativity of Mary), of 1824. La Marinella, the seafront, is characterised by an unmissable scenario but also by the citrus grove of Il Pizzo, among the largest (one hectare) of the Coast, protected as a landscape ad archaeological heritage. The position and the panorama link the local history to the construction of splendid villas, such as the Cocumella, then transformed in a hotel during the Grand Tour time. It hosted extraordinary personalities such as Goethe, the Duke of Wellington, Lord Byron, Joachim Murat, Hans Christian Andersen; and the villa of Lord Crawford, who chose Sant’Agnello as his second homeland, after having stayed in India, and he embellished the dwelling with a collection of ancient art objects.