The Cathedral of Sorrento

Right, it's Thursday evening, so - excepting only the irritating diversion of sorting out next year's car insurance - I have lots of time to do a PROPER blog post. 

I'm devoting another post to the Cathedral in Sorrento.  The original building was dated to the 11th century, but it was completely rebuilt in the 15th century.  The facade - which I featured yesterday -  is, however, modern.  Well, modern from the building historian perspective - it dates to the 19th century.

The interior is heavily decorated:-

 

There's a lot of inlaid marble used in the side chapels, and I originally assumed that the pillars in the nave and the aisles were also heavily decorated with copious quantities of marble.  Closer inspection revealed, however, some clever fakery.  The 'marble' is in fact painted plaster.  But the end result is impressive nonetheless.
 

 

When you're brought up with the austere interiors of modern churches and cathedrals, the heavy use of colour is mind-blowing.  It gives us some idea of what our own ecclestiastical buildings would have looked like, though I suppose the colours used in our churches would have been more akin to those seen in the 'Villa of the Mysteries' - reds, blues, golds - as opposed to these muted browns and beiges.

In case you haven't guessed, my camera wasn't too happy with this church interior.  I had to fight with it to get any decent photos whatsoever, but thankfully I managed to get some impression of its character.

I'll leave you with a tombstone:-
 

 

It's a bit of a minimalist post, as the only book I've got which covers this building is rather a minimalist book - the tourist guide entitled Sorrento And The Amalfi Coast (Conti, Magi, Valdez and Editrice, 2009, Bonechi).

A magnificent building, but it still didn't quite reach my 'Star Building of the Holiday' spot.  Nor did The Villa of The Mysteries....

So what was this illustrious structure? I hear you ask.  Well, you'll just have to wait and see, won't you?

The Cathedral of Sorrento

Right, it's Thursday evening, so - excepting only the irritating diversion of sorting out next year's car insurance - I have lots of time to do a PROPER blog post. 

I'm devoting another post to the Cathedral in Sorrento.  The original building was dated to the 11th century, but it was completely rebuilt in the 15th century.  The facade - which I featured yesterday -  is, however, modern.  Well, modern from the building historian perspective - it dates to the 19th century.

The interior is heavily decorated:-

 

There's a lot of inlaid marble used in the side chapels, and I originally assumed that the pillars in the nave and the aisles were also heavily decorated with copious quantities of marble.  Closer inspection revealed, however, some clever fakery.  The 'marble' is in fact painted plaster.  But the end result is impressive nonetheless.
 

 

When you're brought up with the austere interiors of modern churches and cathedrals, the heavy use of colour is mind-blowing.  It gives us some idea of what our own ecclestiastical buildings would have looked like, though I suppose the colours used in our churches would have been more akin to those seen in the 'Villa of the Mysteries' - reds, blues, golds - as opposed to these muted browns and beiges.

In case you haven't guessed, my camera wasn't too happy with this church interior.  I had to fight with it to get any decent photos whatsoever, but thankfully I managed to get some impression of its character.

I'll leave you with a tombstone:-
 

 

It's a bit of a minimalist post, as the only book I've got which covers this building is rather a minimalist book - the tourist guide entitled Sorrento And The Amalfi Coast (Conti, Magi, Valdez and Editrice, 2009, Bonechi).

A magnificent building, but it still didn't quite reach my 'Star Building of the Holiday' spot.  Nor did The Villa of The Mysteries....

So what was this illustrious structure? I hear you ask.  Well, you'll just have to wait and see, won't you?