The “Collegiata Insigne” of San Simeone, built in the 16th century with a single nave, was consecrated on 22 April 1574. In the 18th century, following modifications in the Baroque style of the time, the Collegiate Church of San Simeon was enriched with a marvellous coffered ceiling, the work of the Neapolitan Remigio Sabbatini, painted and decorated by Mattia Noletti from Avellino in 1737. In the centre, 12 metres above the ground, is the grandiose canvas that the painter Francesco Sacconio painted for 50 ducats, paid in 1738, representing the “Presentation of Jesus at the Temple”, a splendid example of Neapolitan Baroque exuberance. It also houses the relics of Saint Valerio M., who was transferred to Alvito from the catacombs of Santa Ciriaca in Rome in 1656. In the 1930s, it was equipped with a large dome with lantern.
In the cymatium of the marble high altar, built in the 19th century, is a painted panel showing St Valerius Martyr, lying down, while an angel crowns him. It was made for use as a “scurolo” in fact, it conceals from view the gilded wooden urn that holds the martyr's relics. It was painted after 1656, the year of the arrival of the saint's relics in Alvito, or on the occasion of the new arrangement that was given to them at the end of the 17th century, moving them from under the table of the old wooden altar to above it.
Above one of the church's two confessionals, a display case made by a local cabinet-maker in the last century houses the statue of Saint Valerius the Martyr, venerated by the Alvitans as their protector. The wooden statue, of excellent workmanship, dates from after 1656, the year in which the saint's relics were brought to Alvito from the catacombs of Santa Ciriaca in Rome. The saint is depicted dressed as a Roman warrior, a clear reference to the “good battle of faith” that he was called to fight for Christ, to whom he remained faithful until his death.
Large marble tombstone bearing, in addition to the insignia of the Cardona family, counts of Alvito in the 16th century, a text in Latin, today illegible, enclosed in a cartouche, identifying the burial place with that of Antonio Folk De Cardona i Requesens, who died at the age of 55 on 17 February 1566, uncle of the Count of the same name who, “moved by the affection and memory of his elders” as it was written there, had the stone made to honour the remains of his ancestor forgotten in an anonymous burial ground. Today, the stone is placed on the counter façade of the church, to the right of those entering; it was originally located in front of the high altar.
The bell tower of the collegiate church of San Simeone is none other than one of the signal towers of the medieval Alvito city walls. Divided by mouldings, the bell tower highlights the different phases of its construction: medieval and late medieval the first, 16th century, when it was adapted as a bell tower, the last. The belfry currently contains five bells, the largest of which, with a diameter of 103 centimetres, was rebuilt thanks to the “voluntary oblations of the faithful” in 1887. The primitive stone pyramid roof, severely damaged by seismic tremors in the early 19th century, was demolished and replaced with a tile roof.
