As Bishop of the Anagni-Alatri Diocese, it is my honour to greet visitors to our Cathedral, Crypt and Museum. I wish to extend a most heartfelt welcome to this exceptional site, a rich treasury of humanity, life and faith which has had a significant influence on the long history of our City of Popes.

By immersing yourself in such an extraordinary display of art and faith, we hope you experience the soul of a Christian community, not only their desires, hopes and joy, but their moments of pain and hardship too.

Quoting A. Trisinni, the cathedral is “A living flower made of stone which defies centuries and hurricanes”. Undoubtedly, with its nine centuries of history, the Cathedral within our complex is an outstanding mother-church for our Diocese and matrix for the edifices surrounding it.

Nowadays buildings are made to last a possible 50 to 60 years. The resistant and tenacious longevity of buildings such as ours, which challenge the passing of time, can be explained not only by technical ability, but also through the faith and dreams of those who worked on them.

The Crypt, known as the “Sistine Chapel of the Middle Ages”, is no doubt our most admired masterpiece. It bears testimony to a rebirth of the artworks and imagery which took place after the awful Iconoclasm which had swept the western world. The magnificence of the frescos, and the messages within, captivate and stupefy our eyes and hearts. The same goes for several pieces, actual treasures, housed in the Museum.

Dearest visitors, I hope your visit will be an opportunity not only to savour art and to satisfy a desire for culture but also to bear witness to the faith and hope of a Christian community which has withstood the passing of time and lives on, with the duty to tell the story of a people who “God called out of darkness into His marvellous light” (1 Pt 2,9).

Again, may you feel welcome and

enjoy your journey.

+ Lorenzo Loppa