Sant'Antimo

In 1807 a parish was erected because the much-grown fellow citizens started to feel the need to provide for their own spiritual wealth, even at the suggestion of the municipality.

In 1990, on the occasion of the fifth centenary of the foundation, the church was endowed with a majestic pipe organ, which constitutes an invaluable heritage for the whole city community.

The facade of the church is divided into two compartments: in the lower level there is an appreciable portal, while in the upper one, under the tympanum, there is a spacious window, which lights up the interiors.

Between the end of the 12th and the beginning of the 13th century, the University of Sant'Antimo had a small chapel built, with an attached hospital, entrusted to the Confraternity of the Disciplined, under the name of SS.

Later, using its funds, the community of Sant'Antimo began the building of a large new church for public worship, whose plant was very similar to the current one.

The noble feudal lords who lived there, the Dukes Revertera until 1629, the Dukes and Princes Ruffo and the Mirelli princes up to 1806, administered the fief of Sant'Antimo, influencing the socio-economic development, since they had the right to rent feudal lands in exchange of the payment of a tax and to appoint the judge of the territory for the administration of justice; furthermore, they had the power to validate the appointments, but also to dismiss the elected candidates in the Municipal Administration.

Sant'Antimo was an important agricultural centre until the middle of the twentieth century, when the treatment of pomaces allowed this town to play the industrial role of the world's leading producer of a product known as "The Cremore of Tartarus".

Its role as leading producer continued until the end of the fifties, when the arrival of Californian and Mediterranean products caused a crisis in the domestic market.