the museums - san leonardo

San Leonardo with its signature bell tower is the iconic church of Aprigliano. However, the church sits at a miserable curve and therefore has no space for a great door or a great plaza. For me, it's a bell tower with a church attached, but then I belong to the generation that abandoned Aprigliano.

San Leonardo with its parishioners who married in the late 50's has supplanted mighty and beautiful Santo Stefano. It's the parish of families that stayed and saved Aprigliano when thousands of their relatives and friends left for l'america.

Fifty years later and I'm with my cousin Tonina looking out at the campanile talking about the wave of Apriglianesi that rushed to Canada, never thinking about their patrimony; never thinking of all those they left behind. She stayed married, moved to San Leonardo and raised a great family.

And I go to mass at San Leonardo with my cousin's children. I climb the campanile with my cousin Mario and take pictures to show the Apriglianesi in Canada.
(The thumbnail points to the large image.)