Benevento’s historical heritage:

Santa Sofia’s churchLongobard monument proposed to Unesco for approval in 2009

By IC and IV C classes of I.S. Galileo Galilei (Benevento, Italy)

The church of Santa Sofia is a circular Lombard edifice dating to c. 760, now modernized, of small proportions: it can be enclosed within a circle of 23.5 m of diameter. It is one of the most important examples of European architecture of the High Middle Ages.

Santa Sofia’sSanta Sofia’s

The plantThe plant was very original for the times: it consists of a central hexagon with, at each vertex, columns taken from the temple of Isis; these are connected by arches which support the cupola. The inner hexagon is in turn enclosed in a decagonal ring with eight white limestone pilasters and two columns next to the entrance.

The church has a fine cloister of the 12th century, constructed in part of fragments of earlier buildings.

The cloister

The church interiorThe church interior was once totally frescoed by Byzantine artists: fragments of these paintings, portraying the Histories of Christ, can be still seen in the two side apses.

Cardinal Orsini

Santa Sofia was almost destroyed by the earthquake of 1688, and rebuilt in Baroque forms by commission of the then cardinal Orsini of Benevento (later Pope Benedict XIII). The original forms were hidden, and were recovered only after the discussed restoration of 1951.

The Samnium Museum

The cloister give access to the Samnium Museum, with notable sections of remains from Ancient age and Middle Ages. These include an obelisk, one of the two that once decorated the Temple of Isis. The other one can be still seen in the city, in the central Piazza Papiniano.

Statua di danzatrice (Ist century)

Emperor Domiziano dressed as a pharaon

Emperor Traianus