The village on the mountain ridge
Sant'Angelo in Grotte is a small medieval village that develops along a single main street: from the ancient bell-tower gate to the belvedere, where, from its almost thousand metres, the view opens onto the plain below. Strolling through its streets is pleasant and undemanding, because the main roads run along the mountain ridge, among well-kept stone houses and views that suddenly open onto the landscape.
Along the way there is no shortage of traces of a distant past: figures carved in stone — a lion holding a lamb in its claws, three lion heads on the quadrangular tower — that recall ancient rulers and a history layered over the centuries.
The historic centre
Once through the arch of the tower, the street of the old quarter begins, lined with houses with stone portals and charming alleys. Halfway along the Corso, on the façade of one of these houses, an amber-coloured stone sculpture worn by time catches the eye: an expressive work by skilled Molise stonecutters, it depicts a lioness suckling two cubs and, with a fierce face, gripping in her teeth the neck of a kneeling man — a powerful image of a long-contested land.
A little further on stands the historic Town Hall building: until 21 September 1955 — the year of the transfer to Santa Maria del Molise — this was the seat of the Municipality of Sant'Angelo in Grotte. Near the belvedere there is also the small church of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart, built in 1873 on the initiative of the faithful: with a single nave, it holds the statue of Saint Anthony, which bears set into its chest the relic of a small bone of the Saint from Padua.
The bell tower
At the end of Piazza Colonna the bell tower rises suddenly: massive, quadrangular in shape and dating from the 16th century, it recalls that of Isernia Cathedral. It is divided into two floors — the first is reached by the staircase inside the parish church, the second has four large arched openings housing the bells, the largest of which weighs thirteen hundredweight. From the façade facing the Matese, three lion heads carved in the local hard stone jut out, with a threatening air towards anyone about to pass through the medieval arch. An inscription, under the arch, recalls Pietro Celestino V — pope, hermit and saint — at the heart of a fascinating theory that would place his birth right here.
Piazza Colonna, the "balcony of Molise"
Largo Garibaldi, known to everyone as Piazza Colonna, is the heart of the town and the setting for the main cultural and food-and-wine events. Here you can find an 18th-century granite obelisk, "Il Mercante" (The Merchant) — the column to which defaulters were once tied — and, on the wall of a building, a sundial with the motto Horas Tibi Serenas. From here the view sweeps over the Bojano valley and the Matese massif, as far as the Monforte Castle of Campobasso: it is no coincidence that the place is called "the balcony of Molise".
“Horas Tibi Serenas” — may I always mark happy hours for you.
Viale San Michele and the Wall of the Saints
Sant'Angelo in Grotte is not only one of the most evocative destinations in Molise, but also a place of faith and pilgrimage. Outside the Sanctuary, the Parco di San Michele offers an equipped green area with a picnic zone and the Monument to the Emigrant, dedicated to the many people of Sant'Angelo around the world. From the Grotto you reach the town centre, at Largo Santa Barbara, along Viale San Michele: along its stone wall open numerous niches with statues of the Saints dear to local tradition — the so-called Wall of the Saints.