On our first morning in Sorrento, our group took a walking tour of the town with one of the folks from Sant’Anna. During the walk our Professoressa pointed out that the churches in Sorrento would be very different than the churches we had studied and visited in Florence. She encouraged us to visit and study them on our own. Since I had collected so many photos from visiting the churches in Florence, I thought it would be neat to do the same in Sorrento and over the course of a couple of days, I took some time to pop into a few locations. 

There are quite a few churches in Sorrento. I counted twelve on the map, but I bet there are small churcehs tucked in here/there that aren’t even really accounted for as they aren’t your typical ornate Catholic churches. (I know there’s at least one because I accidentally found it.) I visited the following locations:

  • Basiclica di Sant’Antonio
  • Chiesa S. Paolo
  • Chiesa dei Santi Felice e Baccolo
  • Chiesa della SS. Annunziata
  • Church name unkown

I’ll let you do your own googling if you want to read up about these and other churches in Sorrento. Each one has a really unique and interesting history. 

The major differences I noticed, between the Sorrento churches and the Florentine churches, was in both the style and function of the churches. These differences follow along with other sentiments I picked up between the northern culture and the southern culture. First, the Sorrento churches definitely have more of a Spanish flair to them vs. the Florence churches which carried a more traditional Italian look to them. Professoressa said the churches in Sorrento would have a more Baroque style to their design, but to be honest I am not that familiar with the design and styles of the differet periods of history so I’ll defer to her on this specific as Professoressa knows a LOT about art, architecture, design, etc. Second, the major difference I noted, was that each church had an important saint, friar, madonna, or other historical element, that was removed from the church and carried through the streets of Sorrento for religious events. This reminded me of some of the religious celebrations I’ve seen carried on in Mexico where church icons are removed and carried through the street. It’s not something I’ve seen in America, but I connect it with Spanish/Mexican Catholicism. This makes sense since Sorrento was controlled by Spain for a long time centuries back. 

I’ve included a slideshow of the churches I visited. I hope you enjoy looking through these pics and can take some time to appreciate the beautiful details in each building. They are all very different. And it’s really amazing to me that these churches are, in some cases, several hundred years old!

Please note: the slideshow is currently completely out of order based on how WordPress uploaded the files. As soon as I have time I’ll get the pics in the correct order. I’m working via the WordPress webapp vs. how I normally work in WordPress and to be honest, I can’t figure out how to easily reorder the gallery images! As soon as I can, I’ll get it sorted out and add captions to all the photos so you’ll know what you’re looking at. In the mean time – enjoy the diversity of the five churches I visited in Sorrento!