Cathedrals in Italy

Reggio Calabria Cathedral

Reggio Calabria Cathedral was severely damaged by an earthquake in 1908, and rebuilt in a modern eclectic style with Romanesque and Gothic elements. The initial design was by the engineer P. Carmelo Umberto Angiolini and then modified by the engineer Mariano Francesconi. The new church was consecrated in 1928.
Founded: 1908-1928 | Location: Reggio Calabria, Italy

Cosenza Cathedral

The exact origins of the Cosenza Cathedral are unknown; it was probably built during the first half of the 11th century. An earthquake destroyed the cathedral on 9 June 1184, and rebuilding was completed by 1222 when the cathedral was consecrated by Emperor Frederick II. At some point during the first half of the 18th century the church was covered by a baroque superstructure which obliterated the original structure and ...
Founded: 1222 | Location: Cosenza, Italy

Nicastro Cathedral

Nicastro Cathedral is a Roman Catholic cathedral in the town of Nicastro, now part of the city of Lamezia Terme. It was previously the episcopal seat of the Diocese of Nicastro and when the diocese changed its name to the Diocese of Lamezia Terme, remained its cathedral. The first church on the site probably dated from the Byzantine era, and was destroyed during Saracen raids prior to the year 1000. The Normans in 1094 e ...
Founded: 1675 | Location: Lamezia Terme, Italy

Oria Cathedral

Oria Cathedral (Basilica di Santa Maria Assunta) is the episcopal seat of the Diocese of Oria. In 1750 the then bishop of Oria demolished the 13th-century Romanesque cathedral that stood previously on the site, which had been left unsafe by the earthquake of February 20, 1743. Two columns from the old church were purchased for 8000 ducats for use in the Capella Reggia of Caserta. The new church was reconsecrated in 17 ...
Founded: 1756 | Location: Oria, Italy

Bisceglie Co-Cathedral

Bisceglie Cathedral (Concattedrale di San Pietro Apostolo) is a Roman Catholic cathedral in Bisceglie. Peter II of Trani began to build the cathedral in 1073, which he dedicated to his namesake, Saint Peter. Building was completed in 1295. Formerly the episcopal seat of the Diocese of Bisceglie, it has been since 1986 a co-cathedral in the Archdiocese of Trani-Barletta-Bisceglie.
Founded: 1073-1295 | Location: Bisceglie, Italy

Foggia Cathedral

Foggia Cathedral is the seat of the Archbishop of Foggia-Bovino. The present Romanesque building was constructed as a collegiate church in the 1170s, but was damaged in the earthquake of 1731 and restored in a Baroque style. When the Diocese of Foggia was created in 1855, the collegiate church was declared its cathedral. The diocese was elevated to an archdiocese in 1979 and amalgamated with the Diocese of Bo ...
Founded: 1170s | Location: Foggia, Italy

Gravina Co-Cathedral

Since 1986 Gravina Cathedral has served as a co-cathedral of the Diocese of Altamura-Gravina-Acquaviva delle Fonti. It was built here at the end of the 11th century by Humphrey of Hauteville, Count of Apulia and Calabria, and thus lord of the town. This church was destroyed in the years 1447-1456 by a fire followed by an earthquake, after being refurbished in a Renaissance-Romanesque style. Of the original church only ...
Founded: 11th century | Location: Gravina in Puglia, Italy

Alessandria Cathedral

Alessandria Cathedral is dedicated to Saints Peter and Mark. It is the seat of the Bishop of Alessandria. A diocese centred on Alessandria was created in 1175 by Pope Alexander III, and a cathedral dedicated to Saint Peter was built as the bishop"s seat at that time. It was too small however, so was demolished and rebuilt between 1288 and 1297. This cathedral was demolished for military tactical reasons on the order ...
Founded: 1807-1810 | Location: Alessandria, Italy

Bovino Co-Cathedral

Bovino Cathedral (Basilica Concattedrale di Santa Maria Assunta) is a Roman Catholic cathedral in Bovino, region of Apulia, dedicated to the Assumption of the Virgin Mary. Formerly the episcopal seat of the Diocese of Bovino, it has been since 1986 a co-cathedral in the Archdiocese of Foggia-Bovino. The site is an ancient one, but the cathedral was destroyed in an earthquake in 1930 and the present building is a 20th-cen ...
Founded: 1936 | Location: Bovino, Italy

Rossano Cathedral

Rossano Cathedral is the seat of the Archbishop of Rossano-Cariati. The cathedral was built in the 11th century, with substantial reconstruction in the 18th and 19th centuries. It has a central nave and two side-aisles, terminating in three apses. The bell tower and the baptismal font date from the 14th century, while the other artworks and furnishings are of the 17th and 18th centuries. The cathedral houses an ancient ...
Founded: 11th century | Location: Corigliano-Rossano, Italy

Agrigento Cathedral

Founded towards the end of the 11th century by Bishop Gerlando, this Norman-Gothic style Agrigento Cathedral was enlarged and remodelled several times as of the 14th and up till the 17th century, only preserving, of the original structure, its magnificent mullioned windows still visible on the right side. Its facade is accessed by a wide, easy staircase, flanked by the magnificent, unfinished 15th century belltower embell ...
Founded: 11th century | Location: Agrigento, Italy

Andria Cathedral

Andria Cathedral is dedicated to the Assumption of the Virgin Mary and is the seat of the Bishop of Andria. The present cathedral was built by the Norman Geoffrey of Hauteville, lord of Andria, on top of an earlier small church of the 7th-8th century, which forms the present crypt. It received further extensive refurbishment and reconstruction in the mid-14th century in the Late Gothic style, and again later in the Baroqu ...
Founded: 14th century | Location: Andria, Italy

Termini Imerese Cathedral

Duomo di San Nicola di Bari in Termini Imerese originates from the Norman age, but the current building was erected in 1604 by Antonio Spadafora. It was completed in the late 17th century. Today it has an classical-style structure with three aisles and a beautiful bell tower.
Founded: 1604 | Location: Termini Imerese, Italy

Thiene Cathedral

Thiene Cathedral replaced a previous church of the Assumption which apparently dated from before 1166. Construction was completed by 1314. It was rebuilt in 1625, and was substantially altered in the late 18th century by architect Ottone Calderari. The dome was not added till the 1930s. The nave ceiling is decorated with 15 paintings by Baroque Venetian painters, including Giulio Carpioni and Giovanni Battista Pittoni. N ...
Founded: 1314 | Location: Thiene, Italy

Palmi Cathedral

Palmi Cathedral is the principal church of Palmi in Italy, and co-cathedral of the diocese of Oppido Mamertina-Palmi. There are no accurate reports on the age in which this parish was established. Between 1310 and 1311, is attested in Palmi a church of St. Nicholas was the only one in the village. The church of St. Nicholas is again reminded in some acts of 1532. The church, in 1586, stood clear of the city walls. In the ...
Founded: 1786 | Location: Palmi, Italy

Brugnato Cathedral

According to some sources, supported by finds in the foundations, the first religious building on the site of Brugnato Cathedral was constructed in the 7th century over a palaeochristian necropolis, the church of a monastery dependent on Bobbio Abbey, founded by and dedicated to Saint Columbanus. It was rebuilt in the 11th-12th centuries, passed to a resident community of Benedictine monks, and became in 1133 the seat of ...
Founded: 11th century | Location: Brugnato, Italy

Adria Cathedral

Adria Cathedral (Duomo di Adria) replaced the much older former cathedral nearby, dedicated to Saint John, which continues in use as a parish church. The new cathedral, dedicated to Saints Peter and Paul, was built in the early 19th century over a 14th-century church. When works were undertaken in 1830 to investigate the stability of the foundations, a Byzantine crypt and frescoes were discovered. The cathedral also con ...
Founded: 1830 | Location: Adria, Italy

Manfredonia Cathedral

Manfredonia Cathedral is dedicated to Saint Laurence of Siponto, one of the patron saints of the city. The construction of a cathedral, after the transferral here of the seat of the bishops of Siponto, began in 1270 and finished in 1274. The first building was destroyed by the Turks in 1620, and was not rebuilt until 1700, using the ruins of the old Angevin church on the authority of the then bishop, Bartolomeo della Cue ...
Founded: 1270 | Location: Manfredonia, Italy

Castellaneta Cathedral

Castellaneta Cathedral is dedicated to the Assumption of the Virgin Mary. It is the episcopal seat of the Diocese of Castellaneta. The first cathedral on the site was initially dedicated to Saint Nicholas of Bari, and dated at the latest from the Norman occupation of the last decades of the 11th century. In the 14th century, it was replaced with a Romanesque structure with a basilica layout of a central nave and tw ...
Founded: 14th century | Location: Castellaneta, Italy

Torba Abbey

Torba Abbey is a former Benedictine nunnery in the Castelseprio Archaeological Park. This in turn forms part of the serial site 'Longobards in Italy, Places of Power (568–774 A.D.)', comprising seven sites of especial importance for Lombard arts in architecture, pictures and sculpture, entered on the UNESCO List of World Heritage Sites in 2011. History The first nucleus of the Castelseprio complex, of ...
Founded: 8th century AD | Location: Castelseprio, Italy

Featured Historic Landmarks, Sites & Buildings

Historic Site of the week

Monte d'Accoddi

Monte d"Accoddi is a Neolithic archaeological site in northern Sardinia, located in the territory of Sassari. The site consists of a massive raised stone platform thought to have been an altar. It was constructed by the Ozieri culture or earlier, with the oldest parts dated to around 4,000–3,650 BC.

The site was discovered in 1954 in a field owned by the Segni family. No chambers or entrances to the mound have been found, leading to the presumption it was an altar, a temple or a step pyramid. It may have also served an observational function, as its square plan is coordinated with the cardinal points of the compass.

The initial Ozieri structure was abandoned or destroyed around 3000 BC, with traces of fire found in the archeological evidence. Around 2800 BC the remains of the original structure were completely covered with a layered mixture of earth and stone, and large blocks of limestone were then applied to establish a second platform, truncated by a step pyramid (36 m × 29 m, about 10 m in height), accessible by means of a second ramp, 42 m long, built over the older one. This second temple resembles contemporary Mesopotamian ziggurats, and is attributed to the Abealzu-Filigosa culture.

Archeological excavations from the chalcolithic Abealzu-Filigosa layers indicate the Monte d"Accoddi was used for animal sacrifice, with the remains of sheep, cattle, and swine recovered in near equal proportions. It is among the earliest known sacrificial sites in Western Europe.

The site appears to have been abandoned again around 1800 BC, at the onset of the Nuragic age.

The monument was partially reconstructed during the 1980s. It is open to the public and accessible by the old route of SS131 highway, near the hamlet of Ottava. It is 14,9 km from Sassari and 45 km from Alghero. There is no public transportation to the site. The opening times vary throughout the year.