Church of Santa Maria del Buon Consiglio

Built around 1850 thanks to the will of the Campagnase lawyer Giuseppe Cantalupo, belonging to a noble and ancient family which had huge properties in the hamlet of Serradarce.
He wanted to build a church and then leave a sacred temple to posterity, delivered into the wise hands of the then bishop of our diocese, Msgr. DeLuca. Magnanima work also wanted to meet the needs of the local inhabitants, forced each time to move to Campagna to attend mass, without forgetting that since 1818 the parish of Serradarce depended on that of the Annunziata.
In 1852 he managed to fulfill his wish by building what for many years after will be the spiritual point of reference for the communities of the upper areas of the Campagna area. In 1870 the enlargement works continued by building the rectory, but the goodness of mind of the Campagnase lawyer did not stop, on the contrary, he also had a school of Italian and Latin and one of music and piano built there, investing Friar Mariano as provost of Serradarce and putting him in a position to exercise ecclesial and social activities. The friar also gifted with an active spirit, wanted and obtained from Msgr. Nappi the constitution of the Confraternity of the Immaculate Conception. On 2 July 1885, the high prelate ratified the bull of erection. The same, in 1889, immediately took action together with the local citizens to equip the church with the bell it needed and, again at their behest, in 1901, the driveway was built that led to the church. In 1902, however, the famous Serradarce fair was established for the first time.
An event of absolute importance, however, occurred in July 1924 at the behest of Mons. Carmine Cesarano and the descendants of the Cantalupo family: the parish dedicated to Santa del Buon Consiglio was born. The church was always subject to maintenance and finishing works, culminating in 1933, when the artist Alfonso Metallo ¹ carried out the decorations inside the church.
The turning point came in 1954 when the parish priest of the time bought a piece of land in front of him to build a new church, more adaptable to the new needs of spaces and on 16 October 1959, Msgr. Giuseppe Maria Palatucci, inaugurated the works by symbolically laying the first stone. Work continued for the years to come until it was inaugurated in 1963, although many spaces were still unfinished. In 1968 it was definitively completed with the consecration of the altar.

Text edited by Cristian Viglione.
Revisions: Francesco Pezzuti.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:
1. Valentino Izzo - Raccontare Campagna...Le fabbriche religiose. - VOL. M - pag. 139 - anno 2004