The doorway faces neither the valley nor the square: it opens on the right flank of the church, because there is no façade to speak of. San Silvestro is jammed between two spurs of rock that hide its front and its apse, leaving only the side walls in view — and the bell tower, planted on the spur beside the apse under an onion dome of coloured majolica.
What to see
The portal repays the detour. Three slim round columns on each side: the innermost plain, the middle one twisted like rope, the outer carved in a herringbone pattern. All three climb to a capital where a human face emerges among floral motifs. Above the lintel, a semicircular lunette repeats the same repertoire on its inner face, while the outer frame tells a small story: a stylised plant grows out of the mouth of a carved head on the left and ends inside an amphora on the right. The lunette once held the coat of arms of Pio Augusto Crivellari, bishop of Trivento from 1958 to 1966, now kept indoors.
Inside, three naves, and at the far end the choir loft with its pipe organ. Along the wall of the right nave hangs the object that explains best how this church was lived in: a wooden crucifix with jointed arms. They could be lowered along the sides of the figure when the Christ was carried in the Good Friday procession without its cross. A few steps away, beside the secondary entrance, a plaque records that on 4 March 1726 Alfonso Mariconda, bishop of Trivento, consecrated the church and its high altar, and moved the yearly anniversary of that day to the first Sunday of September. At the end of the left nave, a chapel is dedicated to the Madonna Incoronata.
Visiting
Look at it from a distance first, from the road climbing towards the so-called “Terra di basso”: it is the only spot from which the relationship between church, rock and bell tower makes sense. Then walk up. The building, raised between the 13th and 14th centuries and patched back together after repeated earthquakes, can only be read on foot, one piece at a time.