The church of St. Apollinare stands in the street of the same name that led from the medieval gate of San Biagio (St. Anthony) in the heart of the ancient village of Thatari. Named among the five parishes in 1278, only the now walled-in Gothic portal survives of the church’s original layout. In 1651 a vast fire destroyed it, and so of it remain the structures of the present facade and bell tower (1756), which survived the second reconstruction in neo-Gothic forms in the late 19th century. The facade includes in the first order the architraved portal bearing the date of the first reconstruction. The interior furnishings fully capture the work of sculptor Giuseppe Sartorio (1854-1922), author of numerous altars and funerary and commemorative monuments, which can be seen in several city churches and at the monumental cemetery. Prominent in the high altar was the large altarpiece that included the wooden crucifix that has always been venerated in the city and is believed to be miraculous because during the fire of 1651 it was saved in flames from complete destruction. Finally, the sacristy preserves some 17th-century canvases and the limestone stoup referable to the 13th-century layout.
