Cattedrale di San Michele Arcangelo

The Cathedral of Saint Michael the Archangel stands at the centre of Casertavecchia. Built between 1113 and 1153 under Bishops Rainulfo and Nicola, it combines Romanesque influences associated with Sicily, Apulia and Montecassino.

Why it matters

The cathedral is the defining monument of Casertavecchia's Norman-era centre. An inscription on the main portal's architrave gives 1153 as the completion date. The church served as the cathedral of the Diocese of Caserta until the episcopal see moved to the new city in 1842.

What to notice

The central portal is flanked by crouching lions, with a bull carved above; animals and centaurs appear at the side portals. The octagonal dome has blind arches patterned with yellow and grey stone. Eighteen reused Roman columns divide the interior's three aisles. A fourth-century Corinthian capital serves as a holy-water stoup. The seventeenth-century raised pulpit incorporates fragments of thirteenth-century ambos, including mosaic figures of Jeremiah and a man bitten by a serpent. A fourteenth-century Madonna and Child fresco and a wooden crucifix of the same century are among the surviving works.

Context and history

Bishop Rainulfo initiated the building after 1113, and his successor Nicola completed it in 1153, according to the municipal account and the portal inscription. The cathedral complex later gained a bell tower in 1234. The episcopal see moved to Caserta in 1842, after which the medieval church no longer served as the diocese's cathedral. Its reused Roman materials, portal sculpture and later medieval artworks preserve evidence of the village's long religious history.