The Cathedral of San Gerardo is the main church or duomo of the city of Potenza. A temple at the site, dedicated to the Virgin of the Assumption, likely dated to the 5th or 6th century, when it was supposedly founded by Saint Orontius of Lecce. A new church dedicated to St Gerardo della Porta, who became patron of the town and whose relics are sheltered here, was built between the 12th and 13th centuries, under the patronage of the bishop Bartolomeo (1197-1206). The five-story stone belltower from this church, attributed to designs by Sàrolo di Muro Lucano, still exists.
The present church is mainly due to a reconstruction during 1783 to 1799 in neoclassical-style with a design by Antonio Magri, a pupil of Luigi Vanvitelli. Since the church has required repairs after various earthquakes and a bombardment in 1943.
The ceilings and the apse have an elaborate program of frescoes painted in the 20th century. The ceiling was painted (1933-1934) from the façade to the presbytery with scenes from the old to new testament by the painter Mario Prayer. The bronze doors (1968) were created by Giuseppe Niglia. Below the main altar is a crypt with archeologic evidence of prior structures in a mosaic pavement. The dome has frescoes depicting a procession of St Gerard. The apse has a Christ the Redeemer frescoed against a bright background. The chapel of St Gerard has a 15th-century reliquary statue.
References:The Pilgrimage Church of Wies (Wieskirche) is an oval rococo church, designed in the late 1740s by Dominikus Zimmermann. It is located in the foothills of the Alps in the municipality of Steingaden.
The sanctuary of Wies is a pilgrimage church extraordinarily well-preserved in the beautiful setting of an Alpine valley, and is a perfect masterpiece of Rococo art and creative genius, as well as an exceptional testimony to a civilization that has disappeared.
The hamlet of Wies, in 1738, is said to have been the setting of a miracle in which tears were seen on a simple wooden figure of Christ mounted on a column that was no longer venerated by the Premonstratensian monks of the Abbey. A wooden chapel constructed in the fields housed the miraculous statue for some time. However, pilgrims from Germany, Austria, Bohemia, and even Italy became so numerous that the Abbot of the Premonstratensians of Steingaden decided to construct a splendid sanctuary.