Santissimo Crocifisso Church

The church dates back to the thirteenth century and was originally called "the church of Santa Maria della Pietà Portanova". It was annexed to the contiguous and namesake monastery, not far from the Cathedral; it was then associated with the most powerful monastery of San Benedetto. It owes its name to the fact that there was kept a venerated cross on wood, painted in the thirteenth century, now in the Diocesan Museum.

The church looks out on a small square, from from demolishing dilapidated tenements (1929). The front is due to a modern remake made in 1959, following the damage caused by the flood of 1956.
The crypt, referring to a church before the year one thousand of which were raised the foundations of the current, was only discovered in 1950.
There are preserved remains of frescoes: a large Crucifixion, dating from the first half of the thirteenth century, in which we see one of the first attempts at painting of "breakthrough" prospective, thanks to the use of the minor characters (smaller paintings).

The scene presents, at the bottom, a geometric decoration that reminds manuscripts dating back to Swabian-Manfrediana age; furthermore, the crucified Christ is painted with his eyes closed, patiens, at a time when, according to the Byzantine tradition, they used and paint it alive on the cross with open eyes, in the type of Christ triumphans. The fresco has been injured by an certain moisture wall.

On the occasion of the jubilee year of 2000, on the initiative of the parish priest Don Giovanni Langellotti, there are four stained glass windows by the artist Paola Salerno Salzano, with the mosaic technique bound to lead with painting cooked at high temperature, which represent: the crucified by Pietro Barliario; Jesus the Good Shepherd; tetramorphs symbols of the four evangelists with the gospel at the center and the opening of the Jubilee Door of St. John Paul II.