The historic Cathedral of Pozzuoli (Campania) will open its doors once more on the 11th May 2014, The Feast of the Saints Procolo and Gennara, patrons of the diocese. The church, built on the ruins of a Roman Temple of Augustus, has a long and tormented history. It rises on a rock which collapsed in 1538, causing serious damage to the structure. Nevertheless, it continued to be an important place of worship, embellished with paintings by leading artists of the '700, such as Artemisia Gentileschi, Giovanni Lanfranco, Luca Giordano and Cesare and Francesco Fracanzano.
Due to its unique architectural mix of classical temple and baroque structure, it was classified as a Temple-Duomo and declared a national monument in 1940. Unfortunately, the nave was destroyed by fire in May 1964, and the ancient marbles were lost. However, the fire exposed the columns, architraves and the cella of the original temple, which have been preserved. The paintings luckily were saved and removed to other churches and museums. They will now be returned for the inauguration.
The restoration work has been long and difficult, due to the unstable state of the site, which was evacuated in 1970 because of earth tremors and rock shifting. Work started again in 1994 but was interrupted many times and only finished in 2009. However, the re-opening has been postponed until now to allow the consolidation of the underlying rock base.
Info: cir.campania.beniculturali.it/archeopozzuoli
