Cattedrale di Santa Maria Assunta in Cielo (Duomo di Nola)

Destroyed by fire in February 1861 and rebuilt to Nicola Breglia's design, Nola's cathedral reopened in 1909 above the crypt of San Felice, the city's first bishop. The cathedral moved from Cimitile to Nola in 1370. Each June, the city's Festa dei Gigli honours San Paolino with a procession of eight towering obelisks; the celebrations of big shoulder-borne processional structures were inscribed by UNESCO in 2013.

Why it matters

The cathedral's history reaches back to San Felice, the city's first bishop. In 1370, by permission of Pope Gregory XI, the cathedral moved from the martyrs' sanctuary at Cimitile to Nola. The present building is itself a story of destruction and persistence: razed by a fire on 13 February 1861, rebuilt to the design of the Neapolitan architect Nicola Breglia, and returned to worship in 1909. Each June the Festa dei Gigli honours San Paolino with a procession of eight towering painted obelisks through Nola. The celebrations of big shoulder-borne processional structures were inscribed by UNESCO in 2013 on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

What to notice

The late-eclectic design is evident in the church's architecture. The church is laid out as a latin cross with three naves and side chapels, its nave divided from the aisles by monolithic grey granite columns, and a high central dome rising where the arms cross. The facade, facing a square cleared in the twentieth century, carries a five-bay portico on six monolithic Ionic columns, a balustrade and a triangular pediment, flanked by twin bell towers; the dome sits on its drum above the crossing, with the older, partially rebuilt campanile close by. Below the church, the crypt holds the venerated tomb of San Felice. The cathedral belongs to the episcopal insula, the surviving block that also includes the campanile, the bishop's palace, the church of San Giovanni dei Fustiganti and the church of the Santi Apostoli.

Context and history

In 1370, Bishop Francesco Scaccano obtained permission to move the cathedral from San Felice in Pincis at Cimitile to Nola's church of the Santi Apostoli, later called dei Morti, beside which San Felice's body was laid. That medieval cathedral collapsed in 1585 and was rebuilt between 1586 and 1594, with decorative campaigns following. The fire of 13 February 1861 destroyed the building and its roof. Reconstruction planning began around 1870 under Bishop Giuseppe Formisano, with the engineer Giordano and then the architect Oscar Capocci, but the surviving fabric was judged beyond saving; Breglia designed and directed the new church from 1895 to 1898, and worship resumed in 1909, followed by a decorative programme by leading late-nineteenth-century Neapolitan painters promoted by Bishop Agnello Renzullo. After the 1980 earthquake, static consolidation from 1984 brought a liturgical renewal, with a new marble altar, a new cathedra and a movable wooden ambo. The municipality characterises the result as neo-Renaissance, with three broad aisles and side chapels.