Benevento: Encyclopedia II - Benevento - Sights

Benevento - Sights

Much damage has been done by earthquakes from time to time.

The importance of Benevento in classical times is vouched for by the many remains of antiquity which it possesses, of which the most famous is the triumphal arch erected in honour of Trajan by the senate and people of Rome in 114, with important reliefs relating to its history.

There are other considerable remains:

• The well-preserved ancient theatre.
• A large cryptoporticus 197 ft. long, known as the ruins of Santi Quaranta, and probably an emporium. According to Meomartini, the portion preserved is only a fraction of the whole, which once measured 1791 ft. in length).
• A brick arch called the Arco del Sacramento.
• The Ponte Lebroso, a bridge on the Via Appia over the Sabbato, below the city center.
• Thermae along the road to Avellino.

Many inscriptions and ancient fragments may be seen built into the old houses; in front of the church of the Madonna delle Grazie is a bull in red Egyptian granite, and in the Piazza Papiniano the fragments of two Egyptian obelisks erected in 88 in front of the temple of Isis in honour of Domitian. In 1903 the foundations of this temple were discovered close to the Arch of Trajan, and many fragments of fine sculptures in both the Egyptian and the Greco-Roman style belonging to it were found. They had apparently been used as the foundation of a portion of the city wall, reconstructed in 663 under the fear of an attack by Constans II, the Byzantine emperor, the temple having been destroyed by order of the bishop, St Barbatus, to provide the necessary material (A. Meomartini, 0. Marucchi and L. Savignoni in Notizie degli Scafi, 1904, 107 sqq.).

The church of Santa Sofia, a circular edifice of about 760, now modernized, the roof of which is supported by six ancient columns, is a relic of the Lombard period; it has a fine cloister of the 12th century constructed in part of fragments of earlier buildings.

The cathedral with its fine arcaded façade and incomplete square campanile (begun in 1279) dates from the 9th century and was rebuilt in 1114. Its bronze doors, adorned with bas-reliefs, may belong to the beginning of the 13th century. The interior is in the form of a basilica, the double aisles carried on ancient columns, There are ambones resting on columns supported by lions, and decorated with reliefs and coloured marble mosaic, and a candelabrum of 1311.

The castle at the highest point of the town was erected in the 14th century.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Sights", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki