Benevento Cathedral

About

Benevento Cathedral (Italian: Duomo di Benevento; Cattedrale metropolitana di Santa Maria de Episcopio) is a church in Benevento, southern Italy. The cathedral is the seat of the Archbishops of Benevento. It dates from the Lombard foundation of the Duchy of Benevento, in the late 8th century, but after its destruction during Allied bombings in the course of World War II, it was largely rebuilt in the 1960s.

History: The cathedral is on the site of the first Christian church in Benevento, where the Roman capitol once stood. In general the foundation is dated to the early 7th century, although in the 8th century under duke Arechis II, it was enlarged into the structure which now forms the crypt of the current cathedral. But as Francesco Lepore demonstrated in a critical study, a sermon of David, bishop of Benevento (781/82 – 796), for the double feast of the Virgin Mary and the dedication of the cathedral on 18 December allows to date the foundation of the church to a few centuries earlier («antiquis temporibus»). Around 830 the Lombard prince Sico I of Benevento enlarged the primitive church with a nave and two aisles, adding classical columns, which characterized the cathedral...