The Church is located on the present Corso Vittoria Colonna in Ischia Porto, in the village six-eighteenth century a few meters from the beach. The parish priest of San Vito Martyr and of the Holy Spirit: Don Antonio Moraldi, conceived the construction of this church, unable to tolerate the residents of Villa dei Bagni, they were to reach the Church of the Friars Minor. The temple then took the name of the Church of Purgatory, or, more precisely, of Santa Maria delle Grazie and the Souls in Purgatory, probably in memory of the Chapel, now included in the Royal Palace, and together with the comfort of tradition that so dedicated the cemetery churches: in fact the floor below was just used as a municipal cemetery.
This also explains why the gentleman Pasquale Battistessa, hanged during the Revolution of 1799 on Mandra Beach and presumed dead, there was transported, but he recovered overnight, was finished by the executioners right at the foot of the main altar. Today the street and the square dedicated to him near, remember that infamous crime. In addition, since the aforementioned chapel dedicated to Our Lady of Grace, was venerated a statue of St. Peter, the residents of Villa dei Bagni devoted mostly to fishing and very devoted to the saint, they loved bear in procession every year on June 28, to the Temple erected by Moraldi, over the years it took to indicate also the church with the title of St. Peter.
The Church rises from the road surface and is set back on a small clearing and is preceded by a rustic churchyard paved with lava stones. The facade and convex, while the interior space and an elliptical shape with its own special unitary character very far from the most current and provincial solutions adopted in other churches on the island. The top of the dome covered in yellow and green majolica tiles that give a unique color and landscape effect, clearly visible from the beach and the pinewood of ' "Arso". Unfortunately regrets the fact that the few historical sources do not allow us to identify the name of the architect, although a careful reading of the work, you can deduct at least in which the current culture and taste it can be placed.