The church of Santa Sofia is a sacred edifice and an art treasure chest. It was born to become the symbol of the Lombard power over Benevento and its territory, the heart of the Langobardia minor, the duchy of the South which in 758, King Desiderius had entrusted to his son-in-low Arechis II.
And the young duke soon dedicated himself to making the capital more and more worthy of his role, calling as patron artists and men of letters and investing in military, civil and religious works, such as the construction of the new church, which was finished in 762. And it took the name of Santa Sofia like the great Aghìa Sofìa of Constantinople, dedicated therefore to Christ’s Divine Wisdom.
The new church was built on the example of the palatine church of Liutprando in Pavia. Small and with rather atypical characteristics, considering the certainly innovative architectural solutions used. Like the radial arrangement of pillars and columns. A church different from others, which had housed the relics of XII Martyr Brothers and in which on 26th of August 768 the body of Saint Mercurius of Cesarea was transferred solemnly, much venerated in Byzantium and patron saint of the Lombards. A role of absolute preeminence for Santa Sofia, which was confirmed in 774, when the defeat of Desiderius by Charlemagne made the Duchy of Arechis the last independent bastion of the great Lombard kingdom in Italy. And the body of Desiderius was buried in the church of Benevento, as well as the one of the other Lombards leaders, at the behest of Arechis who, after having proclaimed the Principality, transformed the church into the sanctuary of the gens langobardorum. And the prince decided to locate, adjacent to it, a female benedictine monastery, entrusted to his sister Garisperga, which became one of the most important centres of the Lombard culture. There, in the Scriptorium of Santa Sofia, the famous lettera beneventana (Beneventan letter) was developed : an example of writing almost used in almost the entire South of Italy for codes and official documents until the 13th century.
The sacred building had to be subjected to transformations, starting with the new stellar plan instead of the circular one, added before the first restoration in medieval times. But still other changes happen after the violent earthquake of 1668 which pulled down the dome and some of the medieval additions. The Cardinal Orsini, the future Benedict XIII, requested the reconstruction according to the predominant Baroque style. The project of the engineer Carlo Buratti revolutionised the original Lombard plan and mostly eliminated the frescoes of the Stories of Christ and the Virgin of which there are only few fragments remaining. The plan was again circular, like the one the church of Constantinople, the interior was plastered and embellished with Baroque decorations. Two side chapels were built, the apse, the facade and the pillars were modified. The last restoration of 1957, instead, tempted to recover as much as possible the Lombard characteristics, removing also the Baroque chapels on the basis of documents which had just been found at that time.
From the Baroque works, the facade with the curved roofs has remained. The beautiful gate is Romanesque and is included in a larger cavity with two columns supporting the characteristic arch. In the lunette, part of the medieval renovation, there is a prestigious bas-relief representing Christ enthroned between the Virgin Saint Mercury and a kneeling monk.
The interior is with a circular plan, with six columns in the centre, which maybe come from the temple of Isis, and they are located at the tops of an hexagon and connected by arches on which the dome is placed. The internal hexagon has a decagonal ring with eight pillars of white limestone and two columns at the sides of the entrance, each one in parallel to the corresponding wall. Therefore, suggestive perspective effects are created, accentuated by the quadrangular, rhomboid and triangular vaults, the result of the several changes. Which can be noticed in the area of the apses, which is circular, while the other walls are part of a star interrupted by the gate. In the corners, there are recesses. So, if the central body remembers the Lombard tradition as we can see in the church of Santa Maria in Pertica in Pavia, the vaults and are details are inspired to the Byzantine architecture.
Fragments of the Annunciation to Zechariah, Zechariah mute, the Annunciation and the Annunciation to Mary remain of the original frescoes in the side apses. They were painted between the end of the 8th and the beginning of the 9th century by artists of the Benevento School of Miniature, also known as Lombard School.
The original monastery was destroyed by an earthquake and another one was built between 1142 and 1176 by the abbot John IV. We can see the magnificent Romanesque cloister with clear moorish influences which houses the archaeological section of the Museum of Samnium.
The church overlooks Piazza Santa Sofia, where there is also the bell tower, built in 1703, after the earthquake of 1688 had razed the original one to the ground. And the new one was built on the opposite side of the entrance to the square, in order to avoid that, in the event of another seism, the church and the bell tower could have caused damages to each other, as it had just happened. In the centre of the square there is a neoclassic fountain, created during the French Decade (1806-1815), with lions supporting a contemporary obelisk.
Unesco has added the complex of Santa Sofia in the list of the World Heritage Sites in 2011, in the series of the “Longobards in Italy, Places of Power”, seven places standing out for the architectural, pictorial and sculptural testimonies of Lombard age.
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