Gaeta cathedral

About

Gaeta Cathedral, more formally the Cathedral of Saints Erasmus and Marcian and St. Mary of the Assumption (Italian: Cattedrale di Gaeta; Cattedrale dei Santi Erasmo e Marciano e di Santa Maria Assunta), is the most important place of Catholic worship in Gaeta, Italy, mother church of the archdiocese of the same name and seat of the parish of Mary Most Holy Assumed into Heaven (Italian: Maria Santissima Assunta in Cielo). The cathedral was built on the site of the older church of Santa Maria del Parco, beginning in the 9th century and enlarged several times. In the 13th century it assumed a seven-aisle structure that remained unaltered under later additions; major interventions were made in the 17th century, carried out by the Lazzari family, which rebuilt the present apse and the crypt dating from the end of the previous century, and in the last quarter of the 18th century, when to a design by Pietro Paolo Ferrara the interior assumed its present appearance. The neo-Gothic facade was built in 1903-1904 and completed only in 1950. The cathedral was elevated to the dignity of minor basilica by Pope Pius IX on December 10, 1848, while it has been an Italian national monument since January...

In ancient times, the city of Gaeta fell under the jurisdiction of the diocese of Formia, according to tradition founded by 487. Due to frequent Saracen raids, in the second half of the 8th century the bishopric was transferred to the safer city of Gaeta, joining its title to the Formian one starting in 787 with Bishop Campolo, which was permanently replaced from 867 with Bishop Rainulfo I.

The relics of St. Erasmus were brought to Gaeta in 842 by Bishop John III and placed in the pre-existing church of Santa Maria del Parco (probably the same church of Santa Maria extra portam mentioned in 831); this building probably already existed at the end of the 7th century, and owed its appellation (placed to indicate an enclosed area) to its inclusion within the second city wall, built between the end of the 8th century and the beginning of the following one. The episcopal complex stood in a terraced area facing the harbor, near the ducal palace, in a densely built-up area, and had incorporated two horrea from the late Republican period built to serve the harbor itself. Below the podium on which the cathedral and episcope stood were several basements owned by Docibilis II (later passed in 954 to his son Marinus II ) that had direct access to the outside; in the one below the altar of St. Eupuria was a cell entrusted since 978 to the rector of the hermitage of St. Michael the Archangel on Mount Altino.

With the discovery of the remains of St. Erasmus made by Bishop Bono (917), the cult of the saint grew, so much so that he became the patron saint of the city, recorded from 995 as the co-dedicatory of the cathedral. For this reason, Hypatos John II of Gaeta (933–963) planned a series of works (probably started in 954) to give the martyr's relics a suitable location, purchasing a house contiguous to the cathedral to enlarge the church and build the new episcope. The cathedral gained further importance in 933 or 934 when Hypatos John, an imperial patrician and grandfather of John II, was buried there.

In 1003, Bishop Bernard, son of Marinus II, initiated the construction of the baptistery of St. John by purchasing a house located near the cathedral and thus beginning the “process of monumentalization of the northern front of the episcopal complex,” probably consisting of a series of staircases and loggias; the designer of the baptistery was possibly Stefano, mentioned in a document of Bishop Leo IV in 1052; the same document describes the monumental access to the complex from the portico side, which took place with a double staircase: the one that led into the church and the one that, instead, through the underground vault reached the episcope.

Beginning with the reign of the Hypati John I (867–933) and his son Docibilis II (933–954), the church was enlarged, and again after 978, to be finally consecrated on January 22, 1106 by Pope Paschal II and dedicated to St. Mary of the Assumption and St. Erasmus, and probably also to St. Marcian and St. Probus; this had a three-aisled structure with access facing the sea and was the place where Pope Gelasius II was consecrated on March 10, 1118.

In 1148 construction of the tall bell tower began on a design by Nicolangelo, a Roman, on land specially donated by the monk Pandolfo Pelagrosio. Work continued until 1180, reaching the top of the quadrangular tower. The apical dome with an octagonal base was added only in 1279 during the episcopate of Bartolomeo Maltacea.

In the 13th century, the cathedral was rebuilt with the opposite orientation to the original one, and a wider structure with seven aisles divided by thirty-six columns to which, over the centuries, others of smaller section were added to better support the structure; the left aisle of the first cathedral, although not in axis with the others, went to form the first right aisle of the new church. Regarding the unique layout of the building there are two main theses:

- the first considers the seven-aisled structure all built ex novo by 1256 following the powerful earthquake of June 1, 1213 by incorporating the 11th-century cathedral, and justifies the anomalous number of aisles as a workaround, through the multiplication of the number of aisles, to the impossibility of multiplying the number of bays due to the presence of pre-existing buildings and streets;

- the second, which draws on cases such as that of the cathedral of St. Andrew and the adjoining basilica of the Crucifix in Amalfi, sees it as the result of the union of two pre-existing buildings of worship of three aisles each (the 11th-century cathedral and a church parallel to it), joined after 1255 by means of an additional, purpose-built nave that would go on to form the central nave of the new cathedral. Throughout the 13th century the building was enriched with valuable artifacts, including the column of the Easter candle and a pulpit ; in 1303, on the occasion of the millennium of the death of St. Erasmus, a precious silver statue depicting the patron saint was commissioned. It is probable that the earthquake of the central-southern Apennines in 1349 also damaged the cathedral of Gaeta, and that the decorative pictorial campaign of the late 14th century - to which the pieces of frescoes visible in the seventh nave bear witness - can be traced back to the restorations following that earthquake.

In the 15th and 16th centuries, the interior decoration of the church underwent some changes: the layout of the chancel was modified and a carved wooden choir was installed, as well as a first pipe organ of modest size.

As early as 1543, Bishop Antonio Lunello had decided to work on the apsidal area of the cathedral by enlarging it to the structures that had been built on the site of the ancient baptistery; however, the presence of the altar of the Holy Cross (placed to the left of the major one, which held the venerated relics of St. Eupuria) and the main access to the episcope, which was formed by the medieval subportico, delayed the work, which was probably never undertaken. The idea was taken up in 1569 by Antonio Lunello's nephew and successor, Pedro, but due to a dispute with the civic magistrate (who had exclusive patronage of the apse) it could not begin until 1584. The new apse, conforming to the dictates of the Council of Trent and adapted to the increased number of canons, was finished and consecrated in 1597, while the underlying crypt was only completed in 1607; at that juncture the two sacristies were also built. In 1617 to raise the vault of the crypt the latter was, together with the apse, the subject of a radical interior makeover by Jacopo Lazzari, who was succeeded in 1644 by his son Dionisio, who in the 1680s was responsible for the construction of a new high altar in polychrome marble; it was not placed close to the back wall, but under the apsidal arch, while at the end of the apse there was a pipe organ on a special chancel, probably a duplicate of the one in the sanctuary of the Santissima Annunziata (built by Giuseppe de Martino in 1685-1689 and enlarged in 1737). Due to a lack of funds, the apse was provisionally covered with a hooded vault; it was not until 1775 that a masonry barrel vault was built, albeit lower than in the original design.

In 1725, the cathedral was also the seat of the parish of Santa Maria Assunta (which had a population of 310 and had been united in the 16th century with that of San Salvatore by Bishop Cardinal Tommaso De Vio ) and the only baptismal font within Gaeta 's city walls (corresponding to the present medieval old town) at which the various parish priests came to administer the sacrament of Baptism ; in addition, there was a chapter consisting of an archpriest, an archdeacon, two primiceri, seventeen canons, eight hebdomadaries, and other clerics.

Beginning in 1788, at the behest of Ferdinand IV of Bourbon, the cathedral underwent a radical renovation designed by Pietro Paolo Ferrara: he did not demolish the old Gothic structure, but incorporated it within a neoclassical-style appearance; the floor plan was reduced from seven to three naves with side chapels, and the nave was covered with a coffered barrel vault, while the two side naves were covered with small domes. The renovated church was reconsecrated and opened for worship on May 28, 1793, by Bishop Gennaro Clemente Francone.

In the 19th century the interior of the building underwent some changes: in 1810, following the suppression of religious orders ordered by Joachim Murat (1809), it welcomed two Baroque altars coming from the church of St. Catherine of Alexandria ; in 1828 the balustrades of the side chapels and a double flight of steps connecting the presbytery and nave were made by Bishop Luigi Maria Parisio, who in 1845 wanted the chapter house to be rebuilt and used as a sacristy. With the bull In Sublimi of Dec. 31, 1848, Pope Pius IX, exiled in Gaeta, elevated the diocese to the rank of archdiocese; he himself visited and officiated several times inside the cathedral during his stay in the city (1848–1849) and again in April 1850 on his return journey from Portici to Rome, and donated some liturgical furnishings to it that are currently on display at the diocesan museum. In the last months of the siege of Gaeta in 1860-1861 the church was hit by two shells (which fell in the sacristy and apse, respectively), which caused some damage that was repaired in the following years.

The facade, the result of the late 19th-century restorations, was very simple in form: it consisted of a plain-plastered wall having a flat crowning, in which there were three lunette windows, the central one at the top corresponding to the vault of the nave and the two side windows, lower down, where there are currently two small circular rose windows to provide light to the aisles; the façade was divided in half its height by a simple cornice and there was a single portal, surmounted by the inscription that remains in the same position and the marble eagle in relief now inside the church. In 1860 Archbishop Filippo Cammarota commissioned Giacomo Guarinelli, a major and commander of the Engineer Corps, as well as an architect who was also active in Gaeta in those years for the neo-Gothic renovation of the temple of St. Francis and the restoration of several churches, to design a new facade; Guarinelli devised an elevation in a neo-medieval style to match that of the bell tower, with a portico surmounted by an enclosed loggia within which a lapidarium would be set up. The project was never realized.

On January 22, 1903, on the occasion of the sixteenth centenary of the death of St. Erasmus, construction began on a new façade in the neo-Gothic style, designed by Pietro Giannattasio and with the advice of Canon Filippo Pimpinella, in the same manner as Guarinelli had proposed. Work stopped in 1904, with the lower part completed and the upper part lacking the two side wings and the rose window; it was not completed until 1950, and, in the rooms above the atrium and behind the choir loft, the Diocesan Museum was set up, opened in 1956 (as already planned in 1910 by the Superintendent of the Galleries of Latium), while originally they were to be used as an archive and chapter house. In 1935, on the occasion of the Eucharistic Congress that was to be held in Gaeta the following year, Archbishop Dionigi Casaroli had a polychrome marble floor made for the apse, bearing the prelate's coat of arms in the center. By Royal Decree No. 1746 of November 21, 1940, the cathedral was elevated to the dignity of an Italian national monument, effective the following January 18.

On the night between September 8 and 9, 1943, after the proclamation of the Armistice of Cassibile, the city of Gaeta was bombed by the German air force and a bomb hit the cathedral causing extensive damage: the roof of the nave and the pipe organ in the counterfacade were destroyed, the floor of the apse and the Lepanto Standard, then displayed above the high altar, were heavily damaged. The repaired church was reopened for worship in 1950 after being reconsecrated by Archbishop Casaroli on November 23 of that year.

In the years immediately following the closing of the Second Vatican Council, the wooden cathedra - devoid of any particular decoration - was replaced with a high-backed upholstered chair that became the ordinary seat for non-bishop celebrants after the gift in 1972 of a new wooden seat in modern style and geometric workmanship, formerly the seat of the church of Santa Maria Assunta in Sperlonga. On the occasion of Pope John Paul II 's visit to Gaeta (June 25, 1989), it was decided to endow the cathedral with a new cathedra, and Erasmo Vaudo was given the task; the seat was made of marble from Coreno Ausonio, reusing some medieval sculptural relics belonging to the cathedral (such as two stylophoric lions placed at the sides of the seat, a marble fragment with cosmatesque quincunx lacking the mosaic decoration with the function of a backrest, and above it the eagle already present on the 18th-century facade), and was inaugurated by the pope himself during the meeting with the diocesan clergy that took place inside the building.

On November 24, 2003, by a resolution of the municipality of Gaeta, which until then held the ownership, the cathedral was donated free of charge to the archdiocese, which became its owner.