every which way

obstacle

Saba

the thin line between mine and yours

visiting the ghosts of Nugent house

(photo by Nereo C.)

Entrance to the rectory, adjoining the deconsecrated church of San Rocco.

The two buildings were donated to the city in 1954 by Countess Margaret Nugent Laval, heir of Laval Nugent Earl of Westmeath (1777-1862), one of the heroes of the Austrian army of the Napoleonic era and of the first war of independence. He played an important role in liberating these lands from the French in 1813: indeed he signed the "Surrender Agreement" of the French barricaded in the castle of San Giusto, together with Admiral Thomas Fremantle. As often happens to so many visitors, the count fell in love with our city and after the war he bought and lived in the complex of the former church and rectory.

The two buildings were donated to the City with the obligation to  convert the church back into a place of worship, and the parsonage into a place of education. Since then, perhaps because of the constraint imposed by the act of donation, the two buildings are in ruins and may even be.... haunted.