Lacedonia Cathedral ( it, Concattedrale di Santa Maria Assunta, Duomo di Lacedonia) is a Roman Catholic

cathedral A cathedral is a church that contains the '' cathedra'' () of a bishop, thus serving as the central church of a diocese, conference, or episcopate. Churches with the function of "cathedral" are usually specific to those Christian denomination ...

dedicated to the

Assumption of the Virgin Mary The Assumption of Mary is one of the four Marian dogmas of the Catholic Church. Pope Pius XII defined it in 1950 in his apostolic constitution ''Munificentissimus Deus'' as follows: We proclaim and define it to be a dogma revealed by Go ...

Lacedonia Lacedonia ( Irpinian: ) is a ''comune'' in the province of Avellino, Campania region, southern Italy, overlooking the Osento River which flows into the Lago di San Pietro (Lake of Saint Peter), an artificial lake. The town is part of the Roman ...

Campania Campania (, also , , , ) is an administrative Regions of Italy, region of Italy; most of it is in the south-western portion of the Italian peninsula (with the Tyrrhenian Sea to its west), but it also includes the small Phlegraean Islands and the i ...

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

. Formerly the seat of the bishops of Lacedonia, since 1986 it has been a co-cathedral in the

diocese of Ariano Irpino-Lacedonia In church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided provinces were administratively associat ...

History

Lacedonia has been the seat of a bishopric since the 11th century. The present church however was built at the end of the 17th century, after an earthquake had almost completely destroyed the town. The works, under the direction of Bishop Gian Battista La Morea, began with the laying of the first stone on 28 September 1689 and were completed in 1709. The former cathedral had been inconveniently distant from the town and the new one was laid out on the site of four old churches or chapels in the centre of the inhabited area. As an inscription records, the cathedral was consecrated on 19 October 1766 by Bishop Nicola D'Amato, who was also responsible for the internal decoration of the building and its elevation to the status of a

minor basilica In the Catholic Church, a basilica is a designation given by the Pope to a church building. Basilicas are distinguished for ceremonial purposes from other churches. The building need not be a basilica in the architectural sense (a rectangular ...

. Initially it had only one

nave The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...

; the two side aisles were added in 1860. The building was damaged by earthquakes in 1930 and 1980, and was restored each time with some modifications to the structure.

Description

The west front has a fine central portal in stone, flanked by a bell tower in

travertine Travertine ( ) is a form of terrestrial limestone deposited around mineral springs, especially hot springs. It often has a fibrous or concentric appearance and exists in white, tan, cream-colored, and even rusty varieties. It is formed by a pro ...

, built in 1751. The interior, divided into three aisles, preserves works from the 17th and 18th centuries. The most significant is a wooden altar of the 16th century painted with a

triptych A triptych ( ; from the Greek language, Greek adjective ''τρίπτυχον'' "''triptukhon''" ("three-fold"), from ''tri'', i.e., "three" and ''ptysso'', i.e., "to fold" or ''ptyx'', i.e., "fold") is a work of art (usually a panel painting) t ...

of high-quality workmanship but uncertain attribution: in the 19th century it was attributed to

Andrea Sabatini Andrea Sabbatini (1487–1530) (var. Andrea Sabatini or Andrea da Salerno) was an Italian Painting, painter of the Renaissance. He was born in Salerno, and initially trained under Raimondo Epifanio in Naples, but move to Rome and became a clos ...

Salerno Salerno (, , ; nap, label= Salernitano, Saliernë, ) is an ancient city and ''comune'' in Campania (southwestern Italy) and is the capital of the namesake province, being the second largest city in the region by number of inhabitants, after ...

Francesco da Tolentino Francesco Da Tolentino (active 1425 – 1435) was an Italian painter. Born in Tolentino, he probably left there as a young man for Umbria, then went on to paint in Naples and elsewhere in Campania and Apulia, including Agro Nolano, Melfi, a ...

, but since the latest restoration it has been attributed to

Antoniazzo Romano Antoniazzo Romano, born Antonio di Benedetto Aquilo degli Aquili (c. 1430 – c. 1510) was an Italian Early Renaissance painter, the leading figure of the Roman school during the latter part of the 15th century. He "made a speciality of rep ...

or a member of his school. On the central part of the triptych is the figure of the Virgin Mary holding the Christ child who is giving a blessing and holding a

swallow The swallows, martins, and saw-wings, or Hirundinidae, are a family of passerine songbirds found around the world on all continents, including occasionally in Antarctica. Highly adapted to aerial feeding, they have a distinctive appearance. The ...

in his left hand, while on the two sides are the figures of saints and archangels.

References

External links

Irpinia.info:La concattedrale

History of the diocese and cathedral

Bibliography

* Bardaro, Mons. Salvatore, 1986: ''La Cattedrale di Lacedonia tra passato e presente, dal 1696 al 1986'' {{coord, 41.0498, N, 15.4239, E, source:wikidata, display=title Roman Catholic cathedrals in Italy Cathedrals in Campania Churches in the province of Avellino 18th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in Italy Roman Catholic churches completed in 1709 1709 establishments in Italy