The devotion of the inhabitants of Grottaminarda to the 'cappelluzza'

Grottaminarda - When entering Grottaminarda it is impossible not to notice a chapel on the side of the road, although it is small in size. This chapel is dedicated to Sant'Antonio da Padova, but the locals call it Sant'Antonio Piccolo or, more simply, the 'cappelluzza'. The allusion is not only, and not so much, to the small size of the sacred shrine, but more to the fact that a small wooden statue of the saint, dating back to the eighteenth century, is preserved inside.

The cappelluzza had to go through various vicissitudes, all linked to the various earthquakes that hit this area. The first was that of 1930, which caused him the greatest damage. The tuff columns were damaged, the altar fell and the vault was split open. Then other damages were caused by the 1962 earthquake, while the consolidation interventions carried out proved effective in the 1980 earthquake. In recent years the Committee for the Cappelluzza Festival has promoted various restorations, the last of which dates back to 2017 with the replacement total of the tuff elements, now irrecoverable.