Sant'Arpino stands on top of Atella, the ancient city, and it has never stopped saying so: the motto of the municipal arms means «the government and the people of Atella». The name is the vulgarised form of Sant'Elpidio, who was bishop of Atella and is the town's patron — the mitre and the crozier in the arms are his, and the crown of thorns stands for the persecutions he suffered and for the destructions the city underwent. The two names coexisted for a long time: a deed of sale of 820 was drawn up in a place near Atella but already called the village of Sant'Elpidio, and only when Aversa was founded was what remained of Atella transferred to the Norman city. The official name Sant'Arpino arrives in 1592, with the ducal fief of the Sanchez de Luna. In 1928 the comune was suppressed to form that of Atella di Napoli, and in 1946 the Republic re-established it.
Very little of Roman Atella has come to light: practically only the ruin of the Castellone, of the second century, about which it is still argued whether it was a bath building or a medieval tower. What has remained, on the other hand, is the ducal palace, built between 1574 and 1592 on top of a church of Sant'Elpidio demolished on purpose. In 1903 it was bought by a Garibaldian lieutenant from Messina, Giuseppe Macrì, who in 1932 handed it over to the people — today it is the town hall, with the library, the civic museum and the picture gallery. Macrì also had a shrine of the Madonna della Lettera, patroness of his own city, placed on the side façade: for a time, on the third of June, the same feast was held here as in Messina.
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📅 Every year, on 24 May; in the past, on 3 June, a feast for the Madonna della Lettera was also held, now lost
Sant'Arpino celebrates Saint Elpidius the Bishop on 24 May, in the church dedicated to him. In the past, in tandem with the city on the strait, a feast honouring the Madonna della Lettera was held every 3 June, a celebration now lost with the arrival of new generations.
Straight-line distances from the town centre. Tap a point to open its page.
The closest destinations covered by our editors, with straight-line distance.
Outside Sant'Arpino, but an easy day trip away.
