The works started in 1113 and continued for forty years, until 1153, when the consecration took place.

There were other interventions, which enriched from an architectural point of view, the original structure or which, as in the Eighteenth century, modified it radically with heavy artistic losses. Already in the first version, the mother church of Caserta, dedicated to Saint Michael the archangel, was like a harmonious synthesis of Romanesque with influences from various parts of Italy, and Sicilian Arab-Norman, probably borrowed from Amalfi. With the 13th century alterations, the Gothic was also added. Then, in the 17th century, the irruption of the Baroque, which prevailed at the expense of a considerable part of the previous works, to be then sacrificed to the radical restoration which restored the Romanesque a century ago.

Made of Campania grey tuff with golden reflections, on the façade the three white marble gates stand out by contrast. The interior, with three naves, has a cross plan (the Tau) with a central nave characterised by a trussed ceiling and evidenced by eighteen cipollino marble columns with all different capitals which, according to legend, came to light in Calatia and transported to the new church by the fairies of the Tifatini Mountains. The columns support pointed arches. Like the one connecting the central nave to the transept with three cross-vaulted apses, with a dome with Arab elements similar to the homologous Cathedral of Salerno, Among the art works, there are the frescoes in the Fourteenth-century chapel, the only one that survived the destruction caused by the Baroque reconversion, a wooden crucifix by an unknown artist on the central altar, a Fifteenth-century fresco with the image of the Virgin and Child, and two funerary monuments inspired by Tino da Camaino’s works. Outside, on the right of the entrance, a magnificent bell tower from 1234 stands out against the sky with its thirty-two meters high.