The Church of Christ the King overlooks the city from a hill that once was the site of a Roman acropolis and later a Norman castle dedicated to Richard the Lionheart. Unfortunately the magnificent octagonal dome of Sacrario di Cristo Re was covered with scaffolding during my visit. The neo-baroque structure was built in 1937 as a memorial to WWI casualties. It contains the bodies of about 1,000 soldiers. Next to the church is this 130 ton bronze bell. It was cast from melted down enemy cannons and it sits on a tower from the ruins of the Roccaguelfonia fortress. It has an inscription from the Virgin Mary’s Holy Letter in 42 AD: “We Bless You and The City.”
