Santa Restituta is a church in

Naples Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's admin ...

, southern

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 ...

, dedicated to Saint

Restituta Saint Restituta (''Santa Restituta of Africa''; died in AD 255 or 304) is a Berber saint and martyr of the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Churches. She was said to have been born in Carthage or Teniza (presently Ras Djebel, Tunisia) and m ...

. The foundation of the basilica is attributed to the Emperor

Constantine the Great Constantine I ( , ; la, Flavius Valerius Constantinus, ; ; 27 February 22 May 337), also known as Constantine the Great, was Roman emperor from AD 306 to 337, the first one to convert to Christianity. Born in Naissus, Dacia Mediterrane ...

in the 4th century and is mentioned in a passage from the life of Pope Sylvester I in the

Liber pontificalis The ''Liber Pontificalis'' (Latin for 'pontifical book' or ''Book of the Popes'') is a book of biographies of popes from Saint Peter until the 15th century. The original publication of the ''Liber Pontificalis'' stopped with Pope Adrian II (8 ...

: " ..at that time, the emperor Constantine built a basilica in the city of Naples." The basilica is most likely located on the site previously occupied by an ancient temple of Apollo.Luciano Pedicini, Napoli, Electa Napoli, 1997, p. 127, ISBN 88-435-5633-9, OCLC 37879463 It is the original palaeo-Christian church on the site where the Cathedral of Naples now stands, and was rebuilt and incorporated into the cathedral when it built in the 13th century. In the crypt are archaeological remains: a Greek wall, belonging to the temple of Apollo, in ''

opus reticulatum ''Opus reticulatum'' (also known as reticulate work) is a facing used for concrete walls in Roman architecture from about the first century BCE to the early first century CE. Facings are a type of polygonal masonry used to apply a smooth finish to ...

''. Under the apse the peristyle of a late imperial ''

domus In Ancient Rome, the ''domus'' (plural ''domūs'', genitive ''domūs'' or ''domī'') was the type of town house occupied by the upper classes and some wealthy freedmen during the Republican and Imperial eras. It was found in almost all the ...

'' was found, whose peristyle is still evident. Also a stretch of Roman aqueduct after the foundation of the city and a stretch of Greek road on an inclined plane. Santa Restituta has a nave with two aisles divided by 27 antique columns, and forms a large, separate part of the cathedral.

References

External links

{{Coord, 40.8529, 14.2594, type:landmark_region:IT, display=title

6th-century churches