Chiesa di Sant'Andrea e Cripta di San Vito

Sant'Andrea in Anagni preserves the history of more than one church within a single complex. The earlier San Vito became a lower-level crypt during the medieval development of the parish above it.

Why it matters

The church is documented in the early eleventh century and underwent major Gothic rebuilding in the thirteenth. Its successive transformations connect Anagni's early religious settlement with later episcopal patronage and eighteenth-century renewal.

What to notice

The nave and side chapels belong largely to the later arrangement, while surviving earlier features reveal the building's layered structure. The Cosmatesque-style floor was reworked in the twentieth century. A fourteenth-century triptych of the Saviour includes the Virgin, Saint Andrew and a kneeling donor, with Saints Magno and Secondina on the exterior wings. Paintings of Saint Andrew add further emphasis to the dedication.

Context and history

Between 1263 and 1276, Bishop Landone Conti's campaign enlarged the presbytery and developed the bell tower, incorporating San Vito into the complex. Sixteenth-century repairs preceded a radical refit in 1748–1751. The result combines medieval survivals with a predominantly later interior rather than preserving a single uninterrupted architectural phase.