In the centre of Lacco Ameno, there is a sacred area, recognized and frequented by believers from every part of the island, since the time of Pithecussai.
It is the one that for sixteen centuries has represented the main point of reference for the cult in honor of Santa Restituta, the young Carthaginian martyred with her other co-religionists in 304, under the emperor Diocletian. According to legend, the remains of the African martyr landed "ad ripas", or on the beach of the island of Aenaria (the Roman name of Ischia) "in loco qui dicitur Eraclius", which corresponds precisely to today's Lacco Ameno. There she was found, after an angelic nocturnal vision, by a local woman, Lucina, who with the entire community buried her where a church already stood, the oldest centre of Christian worship on the island. According to historical reconstruction, the relics of Restituta arrived in Ischia with a group of Carthaginian Christians fleeing from the invasion of North Africa by Genseric's Vandals in 429. The early Christian church stood on the remains of a pre-existing Roman temple and for its construction they stone blocks from a defense wall of the Greek settlement from the 5th century BC were used.
Devotion to the saint led to the church being enlarged and embellished, where the funerary monument with the relics was placed. But the sacred building was destroyed, like all the rest of the coastal settlement, during the invasion of the Mauri in August 812. The few inhabitants who escaped the massacre took refuge in the hills far from the sea and for over a century the area remained abandoned. It was at the end of the year 1000 that an oratory was rebuilt on the ruins of the church, entrusted to the Benedictines, who rekindled the fervor of the faithful for the Vergine Restituta.
Over time, defense works against pirate attacks were built around the church and its spaces were expanded. In the second half of the fifteenth century, however, another period of decline began, interrupted at the end of the century by Father Pacifico da Sorrento, who promoted various interventions on the structures. A century later, the care of the church was handed over to the Carmelites, with the obligation to equip it with a defense tower. It can be seen today combined with the town hall building, formerly a Carmelite convent.
Other notable alterations and transformations changed the appearance of the church again at the end of the seventeenth century, giving the faithful a church with an unmistakable baroque style and a large churchyard. The earthquake of July 1883 caused enormous damage, which was remedied with the reconstruction of the roof, creating an anti-seismic structure in wood and tiles. The new gilded coffered ceiling was supported on 24 wooden Corinthian columns. The building, inaugurated in 1886, was also enlarged and twelve chapels were created, as they still appear today. The current Sanctuary, therefore, elevated to a minor pontifical basilica, is the fifth of the churches that have succeeded one another over the centuries in honor of Santa Restituta, patron saint of Lacco Ameno and the entire island of Ischia.
There are numerous works of art that embellish the church. On the main altar stands the canvas depicting the Madonna del Carmine, Sant'Agostino and Santa Restituta on the boat pushed by angels. On the sides of the work, there are two paintings: San Nicola da Tolentinoon the left and, on the right, San Tommaso da Villanova, both from the first half of the nineteenth century, attributed to Filippo Balbi.
On the left side, there is the altar with an eighteenth-century statue of the Immaculate Conception; the altar with statue of the Heart of Jesus; the altar surmounted by a seventeenth-century depiction of the SS. Trinity; a valuable panel from 1560, depicting the Virgin of Carmel with the Child Jesus, a work by the prolific artist Decio Tramontano.
On the right side, you can admire a painting depicting Saint Augustine by Filippo Balbi; the altar with a seventeenth-century work dedicated to the Presentation of Jesus in the Temple; the altar with a statue of Saint Joseph sculpted in the workshop of Pietro Patalano from Lacco, active between the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries; a valuable sixteenth-century Crucifix and the bas-relief Dormitio Beatae Mariae Virginis, from the school of Bernini.
On the upper part of the walls there are paintings by Francesco Mastroianni, which depict the salient episodes of the life of Santa Restituta.
In the sacristy of the "large church", in a niche surrounded by votive offerings, the painted wooden statue of Santa Restituta dating back to the eighteenth century is exhibited. It is carried in procession during the solemn celebrations of May 17th. Another statue of the Saint, sixteenth century and also made of wood, but with a colored face, is displayed in a glass case in the small church or chapel of Santa Restituta, adjacent to the "large church", adorned with a magnificent altar with a frontal of inlaid marble.
