The basilica del Murgo is a building of the age of Frederick II that was never completed, at Agnone Bagni, in the territory of Augusta, a few hundred metres from the beach. It was founded by the Cistercian monks of the nearby abbey of Santa Maria di Roccadia, at the urging of the emperor himself, and can be dated to the period between 1220 and 1224.
What to see
What remains are the beginnings of the walls, about two metres thick and between two and three high. The church was laid out with a nave and two aisles, and it was large: about ninety metres long and twenty wide.
You can make out the bases of the main doorway, the decoration of the square apses, a few capitals, the half-columns that were to carry the ribs of the cross vaults in the side aisles and, in perfect condition, the pointed door of the transept. A chapel was built on the central apse in 1707.
Visiting
The remains lie within private property, and over the centuries have been badly disfigured: to see them you need to ask on the spot, without taking access for granted.
Our editors' tip
Frederick II is the same man who, a few years later, between 1232 and 1242, had the Swabian castle of Augusta built. Anyone touring the area can set the emperor's two undertakings side by side: the fortress that was completed and the church left half done.
