Santa Maria Assunta: Cathedral of the Diocese of Ischia
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.5
- Popularity
- Very Low
- Country
- Italy
- Primary era
- Early Modern
- External website
- Open
- Eras represented
- Medieval, Early Modern
- Civilizations
- Kingdom of Naples, Spanish
- Site type
- Religious
- Remains
- Cathedral
On this page16 sections
History
Santa Maria Assunta is a Roman Catholic cathedral in Ischia Ponte, Italy, rebuilt in the Baroque style between 1751 and 1752 and consecrated in 1752. It is dedicated to the Assumption of Mary and serves as the cathedral of the Diocese of Ischia.
The fourteenth-century foundation
The church began as Santa Maria della Scala, founded in 1388 by Pietro Cossa in memory of his father, Giovanni Cossa, who had served as governor of Ischia and Procida. An Augustinian convent was established alongside the church, and the Augustinian friars, members of a Catholic order following the rule traditionally associated with Saint Augustine, were placed in charge of the complex.
After the original church was almost entirely destroyed, the Augustinians rebuilt it during the two years before its consecration in 1752. This rebuilding created the Baroque church that forms the basis of the present cathedral.
Cathedral status and the nineteenth century
In 1809 the church became the cathedral of the Diocese of Ischia and received its present dedication to Santa Maria Assunta. The earlier cathedral, located within the Aragonese Castle, had been destroyed during the conflict between French and English forces. English troops bombarded it from positions near Soronzano Hill, and surviving artworks were moved to the new cathedral.
The same year, Joachim Murat, the French military leader and King of Naples from 1808 to 1815, suppressed the monastic orders. This measure forced the Augustinians to leave Ischia. They returned after Bourbon rule was restored, renewing the connection between the religious order and the church.
Restoration and the preservation of earlier works
Santa Maria Assunta underwent several restorations. An intervention in 1912 replaced the flooring, while the cathedral and its furnishings continued to preserve artworks transferred from the former cathedral. Several works that had once been kept in the sacristy are now held by the Diocesan Museum, allowing objects from the earlier cathedral to remain part of Ischia’s ecclesiastical heritage.
Remains
The cathedral has a Baroque facade and a three-aisled interior arranged around a larger central nave, two narrower side aisles, a transept, and an apse. Its furnishings combine eighteenth- and nineteenth-century works with objects brought from the former cathedral and with features associated with the Cossa family and the religious history of Ischia.
Exterior and interior arrangement
Facade and bell tower
Marble steps lead to the three entrances, which are protected by a wrought-iron gate. The facade is divided horizontally by an entablature. Its lower level has stucco pilasters and three portals, with a larger central opening surmounted by a mosaic of the Virgin and two smaller side portals. Above, a large central window is set among stucco decoration and beneath an iron cross.
The square bell tower stands outside the church. It was built in 1596 as a watchtower and as a refuge for the population during Saracen raids. In 1613 it took on its definitive role as the cathedral’s bell tower.
Nave and choir
Inside, the central nave is wider than the two side aisles, each of which contains three chapels. The church has a marble floor donated by Monsignor Mario Palladino. A triumphal arch separates the nave from the transept, and its stucco high relief shows a woman traditionally identified as Pietro Cossa’s wife.
At the rear, two columns support a choir loft containing an organ. The ceiling is decorated with white-and-gold stucco, including figures of angels and putti. These elements form the principal visual framework of the Baroque interior.
Chapels and devotional furnishings
Baptismal chapel
The baptismal chapel in the left aisle contains an oval font supported by three caryatids, sculpted human figures serving as architectural supports. They represent Meekness, Justice, and Prudence and came from Giovanni Cossa’s funerary monument. After that monument had stood in the former cathedral, Archpriest Raffaele Onorato ordered their preservation in 1610.
The font has relief cherubs and is surrounded by four twisted columns decorated with fluting and flowering branches. Their capitals differ in size. The chapel also contains an anonymous eighteenth-century painting of Saint Clare of Montefalco and Saint Rita of Cascia. The font is identified as the place where Saint Giovan Giuseppe della Croce was baptized on 15 August 1654.
Other chapels of the left aisle
A further chapel in the left aisle contains Alfonso Di Spigna’s painting of Saint Joseph, made between 1760 and 1762, together with a marble altar commissioned in 1834 by Bishop Giuseppe D’Amante. The chapel of Saint Giovan Giuseppe della Croce has a mid-twentieth-century painting by Lino Dinetto showing the Virgin with the saint and a marble altar dated 1833.
Chapels of the right aisle
One chapel in the right aisle contains a painting of Saint Thomas of Villanova attributed to Giacinto Diano. A bishops’ chapel, or shrine, was created there in 2000. The chapel of the Immaculate Conception contains an anonymous eighteenth-century altarpiece and a marble altar dated 1834. Another chapel holds Diano’s painting of the Annunciation and a marble altar dated 1833.
Transept, apse, and transferred artworks
Transept and chapels
The transept is covered by a central elliptical dome flanked by two smaller elliptical domes. At its left end, near the entrance to the sacristy, are Giacinto Diano’s painting of Saint Augustine and a statue of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. On the wall facing the nave is a thirteenth-century crucifix from the Catalan school.
At the right end are Diano’s painting of Saint Nicholas of Tolentino and a statue of Saint Restituta. The chapel of the Blessed Sacrament contains a fourteenth-century panel of Madonna della Libera, a Marian devotional title. Tradition holds that Vittoria Colonna and Francesco Fernando d’Avalos often prayed before the panel.
Main altar and apse
The main altar was constructed between 1746 and 1764 and stands in the apse, the rounded or polygonal end of the church around the principal altar. It is surmounted by Diano’s painting of the Assumption, set within a stucco frame. The apse also contains four reliquaries and a wooden choir.
Works now in the Diocesan Museum
Several artworks formerly kept in the sacristy and transferred from the former cathedral are now in the Diocesan Museum. They include a panel by Dirk Hendricksz showing Saint George spearing the dragon, an anonymous painting of Saint Thomas at prayer once incorrectly attributed by Monsignor Onorato Buonocose to Giovan Francesco Penni, and a Gothic-style marble Crucifixion.
