Santa Sofia is a Roman Catholic church in the town of Benevento, in the region of Campania, in southern Italy; founded in the late-8th century, it retains many elements of its original Lombard architecture.
In 2011, it became a UNESCO World Heritage Site as part of a group of seven inscribed as Longobards in Italy. Places of the power (568–774 A.D.).
The church was founded by the Lombard Arechis II of Benevento around 760, as testified by numerous privileges signed by him, some of which are in the Museum of Samnium near the church. The edifice was modeled on the Palatine Chapel of the Lombard king Liutprand in Pavia and, after the defeat of Desiderius by Charlemagne and the fall of the Lombard kingdom in northern Italy (774), it became the national church of the Lombards who had taken shelter in the Duchy of Benevento. The church was part of a large program of construction which would legitimate Arechis' claim as the highest Lombard authority, after his failed attempt to acquire the title of king and the renaming of the duchy as a principality. [1]
Arechis dedicated it to Holy Wisdom ("Hagia Sophia" in Greek), like the Hagia Sophia church of Constantine in Constantinople; he also annexed a nearby Benediction convent, which had been dependent on the Abbey of Montecassino. The convent was placed under the leadership of his sister, Gariperga. The sanctuary also housed the relics of Saint Mercurius, which putatively had been abandoned in 633 near Quintodecimo by the eastern Roman emperor Constans II. [2]
The church was severely damaged by an earthquake in 1688 and another in 1702, which collapsed the original dome and some later medieval additions. Cardinal Orsini, the future Pope Benedict XIII, had the church rebuilt in Baroque style. The restoration work, started in 1705, transformed the plan from a stellar to a circular one, added two side chapels, and changed the appearance of the apse, of the façade and of the pillars. Further, the frescoes which decorated the interior were mostly destroyed: today only a few fragments, depicting the Stories of Christ and Mary, remain. [3]
The church is on a central plan, with a diameter of 23.5 metres (77 ft), inspired by that of Hagia Sophia. In the center there are six columns, perhaps taken from the city's ancient Temple of Isis, placed at the vertices of a hexagon and connected by arches which support the dome. The internal hexagon is surrounded by a decagonal ring with eight pillars in white limestone and two columns at the sides of the entrance. The area of the three apses is circular, but the central and frontal parts form part of a star, interrupted by the portal, with four niches in the corners.
In 1957 most of the original appearance was restored, basing on evidence from historical documentation, with the exception of the Baroque façade. In the exterior, embedded in the 18th-century façade, is a Romanesque portal, whose lunette has a 13th-century bas-relief. [2] The latter was originally part of the prothyrum, now destroyed, and depicts Christ enthroned between the Virgin, St Marcurius and Gregory the Abbot. The portal is flanked by two columns supporting another arch.
The structure was influenced by a variety of sources. The elevated central body recalls the no-longer extant church of Santa Maria in Pertica of Pavia, while the articulation of the volumes shows the influence of Byzantine architecture. [4]
Aside from some modern statues, artworks include the late 8th- to early 9th-century frescoes, of which only fragments survive in the two side apses: the Annunciation of Zacharias, Mutism of Zacharias, the Annunciation and the Visitation. They were executed by artists linked to the school of illuminators from Benevento. [2]
The bell tower was built by abbot Gregory II while under the rule of Pandulf III of Salerno, as testified by an inscription in Lombard script, and protected the sepulchre of Arechis II. It collapsed in the earthquake of 1688 and was rebuilt in 1703 in a different position.
The church has a cloister from the 12th century, constructed in part of fragments of earlier buildings. The cloister gives access to the Samnium Museum, with sections of remains from antiquity and the Middle Ages. These include an obelisk, one of the two that once decorated the Temple of Isis. The other one can be still seen in the city's central Piazza Papiniano.
The Lombards or Longobards were a Germanic people who conquered most of the Italian Peninsula between 568 and 774.
Benevento is a city and comune of Campania, Italy, capital of the province of Benevento, 50 kilometres (31 mi) northeast of Naples. It is situated on a hill 130 metres above sea level at the confluence of the Calore Irpino and the Sabato. In 2020, Benevento has 58,418 inhabitants. It is also the seat of a Catholic archbishop.
The province of Benevento is a province in the Campania region of Italy. Its capital is the city of Benevento.
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Grimoald or Grimwald (†671) was a 7th-century King of Italy, ruling as Duke of Benevento from 647 to 662, and then as King of the Lombards from 662 until his death in 671.
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Arechis II was a Duke of Benevento, in Southern Italy. He sought to expand the Beneventos' influence into areas of Italy that were still under Byzantine control, but he also had to defend against Charlemagne, who had conquered northern Italy.
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Ansa or Ansia was a Queen of the Lombards by marriage to Desiderius (756–774), King of the Lombards.
The Kingdom of the Lombards, also known as the Lombard Kingdom and later as the Kingdom of all Italy, was an early medieval state established by the Lombards, a Germanic people, on the Italian Peninsula in the latter part of the 6th century. The king was traditionally elected by the very highest-ranking aristocrats, the dukes, as several attempts to establish a hereditary dynasty failed. The kingdom was subdivided into a varying number of duchies, ruled by semi-autonomous dukes, which were in turn subdivided into gastaldates at the municipal level. The capital of the kingdom and the center of its political life was Pavia in the modern northern Italian region of Lombardy.
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Among the Lombards, the duke or dux was the man who acted as political and military commander of a set of "military families", irrespective of any territorial appropriation.
Lombard architecture refers to the architecture of the Kingdom of the Lombards, which lasted from 568 to 774 and which was commissioned by Lombard kings and dukes.
Longobards in Italy: Places of Power is seven groups of historic buildings that reflect the achievements of the Germanic tribe of the Lombards, who settled in Italy during the sixth century and established a Lombard Kingdom which ended in 774 A.D.
Benevento Cathedral 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.
The monastery of San Felice was one of the main female Benedictine monasteries of Pavia; founded since the Lombard period, it was suppressed in the 18th century.Part of the church and the crypt survive from the original Lombard complex.
The monastery of Santa Maria Teodote, also known as Santa Maria della Pusterla, was one of the oldest and most important female monasteries in Pavia, Lombardy, now Italy. Founded in the seventh century, it stood in the place where the diocesan seminary is located and was suppressed in the eighteenth century.
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