Welcome to the site Napoliforme

A hamlet linked to the area of Roman Atella, it developed from the 9th century onwards and its foundation, set by tradition at 816 AD, is enshrined in a legend. It is said that Antimo (or Antemio) Duke of Naples, hunting in this area, stopped to rest and received in a dream the assignment from the saint whose name it bears to build a votive aedicule, which the Duke would dedicate to the martyr Sant'Antimo: the small temple became the centre around which the town grew and from which the village took its name. On the site of the primitive chapel stands the baronial castle and the church of Sant'Antimo, now in the central square of the municipality. The church, with a single nave and side chapels, preserves works of art dating from the 17th to the 19th century that bear witness to the uninterrupted devotion to the patron saint. The Chapel of Sant'Antimo was built (17th century) to house the martyr's relics and the whole town contributed to the construction costs. Tradition tells us that the remains of the saint, beheaded in Rome at the time of Diocletian's persecutions (on 11 May 305, according to hagiographic texts that are not known to be reliable), were donated by Pope Paul V to a Roman noblewoman who in turn entrusted them to Antonio Carelli, a priest born in Sant'Antimo, and how the latter's nephew, Angelo Clarelli, later donated the relics to the town (1658), now kept under the altar table in a silver urn. In the chapel, in a niche, is the silver bust of St Antimo (1712), protagonist every year of the week dedicated to the celebrations in honour of the patron saint.