The church of San Cesello, located in the ancient Rione Villanova, was built in 1702 by the gremio dei bottai, a few meters from Porta Cavagna, one of the two gates that secured the entrance to the neighborhood. It is named after a boy saint who, according to the Passio, suffered torture right near Porta Cavagna. The task of erecting it was entrusted to local craftsmen, who made a simple quadrangular vaulted room, a facade also quadrangular with a round rose window of modest size, and a flat architraved door surmounted by a Gothic-style lunette. The two-light ribbed bell tower completes the exterior figure. Inside, the wooden altar, the execution of which was supervised by a local artisan workshop, consists of a single order of four twisted columns that divide the space into three compartments, supporting a rich projecting entablature over which rises a cymatium in the shape of an aedicule and divided into three parts by gilded columns. The central niche is flanked by two large canvases depicting scenes of the martyrdom of Cesellus, Lussorio and Camerino. One of these shows the Cavagna gate as it appeared in the early 18th century, before it was demolished to connect the San Mauro area with the San Giovanni area. Through various vicissitudes involving the coopers’ gremio, and following their decay, the church suffered gradual abandonment until, in 1951, it was entrusted to the Sacramentine, a congregation of cloistered nuns, who still care for its opening to the public today.
