Cattedrale di Santa Maria Assunta (Ischia Ponte)
Ischia (NA)
KnownSacred art
The story
When the cathedral on the Castello was destroyed by English cannon fire in 1809, the bishops moved down to the valley and built a new one at the foot of the bridge. Beneath the present church survives the medieval crypt with frescoes of the Giottesque school.
Access
FREE, service hours. Crypt with limited openings
The story
The Cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta, at Ischia Ponte, is the mother church of the island. Heir to a fourteenth-century church, it was rebuilt in Baroque forms in the mid-eighteenth century and became a cathedral in 1809, after the Napoleonic bombardments had struck the old seat in the Aragonese Castle. The bell tower was originally a watchtower of 1596.
What to see
The Baroque façade with the three portals and the mosaic of the Madonna, and the interior with three naves with stuccoes and gilding, canvases by Giacinto Diano and a fourteenth-century baptismal font with three caryatids. You are in the evocative village of Ischia Ponte, on the road that leads to the Aragonese Castle.
How to get there
- Hydrofoil
- Ferry
Tips
It is an active place of worship: check the opening hours on site. You are in the village of Ischia Ponte, one of the most beautiful on the island: to be combined with the walk towards the Aragonese Castle. Beautiful at sunset, with the light on the village.
Frequently asked questions
What is the Cathedral of Ischia?
The mother church of the island, at Ischia Ponte: Baroque, rebuilt in the eighteenth century, it became a cathedral in 1809; the bell tower was a watchtower of 1596.
What can you see in the cathedral of Ischia?
The Baroque façade with the mosaic of the Madonna, the interior with three naves with stuccoes and gilding, canvases by Giacinto Diano and a fourteenth-century baptismal font.
Where is it?
In the village of Ischia Ponte, on the road that leads to the Aragonese Castle.
More gems in Ischia
VolcanoesMonte Epomeo
Ischia
The roof of the island at almost eight hundred metres: from the green tufo summit, with its hermitage carved into the rock, the eye takes in all of Ischia and the bay as far as Capri.
◆ CastlesTorre di Guevara
Ischia
Raised at the end of the fifteenth century on the meadow of Cartaromana, the tower also known as di Michelangelo faces the Castello Aragonese and the Sant'Anna rocks, and now frames art exhibitions.
- Free beaches
Baia di Cartaromana
Ischia
A small bay looking out on the Castello Aragonese and the Sant'Anna rocks, where thermal springs warm the sea and the Torre di Guevara keeps watch from the meadow above the water.
- ◆ Museums
Museo del Mare (Palazzo dell'Orologio)
Ischia (NA)
Three floors of nets, ex voto, models and photographs of men who set out to sea and never returned. It is the museum the fishermen of Ischia Ponte built for themselves, in the clock tower palace that marked the rhythm of their departures.
- ◆ Museums
MUDIS — Museo Diocesano di Ischia
Ischia (NA)
Silverware, vestments and painted panels gathered from the island's churches after earthquakes and collapses. It is the storehouse of Ischia's sacred memory, and almost no tourist ever opens its doors.
- Views & panoramas
Scogli di Sant'Anna
Ischia (NA)
Three teeth of rock facing the Castello Aragonese. Every 26 July the sea here fills with lit-up boats and at the end the Castello burns amid the fireworks: it is the Festa di Sant'Anna, and for one night the island re-enacts its own blaze.
More gems: Sacred art
Sacred artCappella Sansevero (Cristo Velato)
Napoli (NA)
Beneath a veil of marble that still seems to breathe, Sanmartino's Cristo Velato rests in the chapel's half-light, and the whiteness of the stone deceives every eye.
Sacred artDuomo di Napoli
Napoli
Three times a year the city holds its breath as the blood of San Gennaro waits to liquefy, among Gothic naves and the gold of the chapel devoted to him.
Sacred artCappella del Tesoro di San Gennaro
Napoli
Behind a bronze gate lie silverware, gems and the jewel-studded mitre of the saint: a treasure heaped up over centuries by the devotion of Naples.
Sacred artChiesa del Gesù Nuovo
Napoli
The facade of pyramid-cut piperno stone hides symbols carved into the blocks, while inside the Baroque bursts out in marble and in the memory of the physician Giuseppe Moscati.
Sacred artChiostro di Santa Chiara
Napoli
A garden of pillars clad in yellow and blue majolica, where lemon pergolas and eighteenth-century scenes painted on the tiles keep the noise of the city at bay.
Sacred artSanta Maria delle Anime del Purgatorio ad Arco
Via Tribunali 39
Bronze skulls stand guard at the entrance, and down in the hypogeum the cult of the anime pezzentelle (adopted souls of the dead) still leaves flowers and prayers beside abandoned crania.