We are standing before the so-called marble pergola of Centurius, the only element within the abbey that can be dated with certainty: in fact, the inscription running along the architrave bears the date 1170. It was commissioned by a presbyter from the master Centurius for the remission of his sins and those of his parents. Its purpose was to divide the Chapel of the Virgin from the rest of the side nave.
It was made using numerous spolia elements from the Roman period. The base of the first small column on the left shows a fragment of an inscription mounted upside down, on which the remaining letters can be read, forming the words LEGATO VESPASIANI. This was a funerary slab belonging to a freedman of the emperor, dating to the 1st century AD. The fluted pilasters are also reused elements, as is the decoration of the transenna slabs, executed in opus sectile with pairs of marble tesserae—green serpentine and red porphyry—formed into opposing semicircles arranged on perpendicular axes.
The screen is further adorned with a projecting band embellished by a braid with star-shaped flowers. These decorative motifs are widely found in Cosmatesque art and can be seen in numerous Roman churches. Above the slabs rise four small columns with as many capitals decorated with trilobed acanthus leaves, which support the architrave along which run two rows of acanthus leaves and the inscription.
The two icons date to the 1970s and bear witness to the presence of the Ecumenical Brotherhood of Saints Nicholas and Sergius, which inhabited Argentella from the 1950s until 2020. They depict Mary, the Panàghia Pànton Elpis (Mother of All Hope), and Christ Pantocrator, the Almighty.
Let us return to the central nave and ascend the steps of the presbytery, positioning ourselves near the altar.
