Church of San Giovanni a Mare description and photos - Italy: Gaeta (Topic)

Church of San Giovanni a Mare description and photos - Italy: Gaeta. Detailed information about the attraction. Description, photographs and a map showing the nearest significant objects. The title in English is San Giovanni a Mare.

Photo & Description

San Giovanni a Mare, popularly known as San Giuseppe, is a church located in the heart of Gaeta on Via Bozan facing the port. The current building of the church stands on the site of a small ancient chapel, destroyed during the 1213 earthquake. Between the 15th and 17th centuries, San Giovanni a Mare was decorated with frescoes and baroque plaster decorations (stucco). At the same time, a marble main altar and small altars made of artificial marble appeared in the church. At the end of the 19th century, the temple was donated a small mobile organ of the Neapolitan school, which, unfortunately, was lost in the 70s of the 20th century.

In the 20th century, the building of San Giovanni a Mare was reconstructed several times. Major restoration work was carried out here in 1928, when all the baroque decorations were removed. And from 1998 until the beginning of the 21st century, work was carried out to strengthen the structure of the building.

The simple gable facade of the church is crowned with a small bell tower with three arches, which contain the same number of bells. In the center of the facade you can see a small round rosette window, under which is a portal with a frescoed Gothic lunette. While the right side of the church is inscribed in a residential area, the left side and the apse face a small pedestrian area. On the left side is the original dome of San Giovanni a Mare, decorated with small hanging arches and beautiful mosaics reminiscent of the Byzantine. Three apses can be seen from the back of the church.

Inside the temple consists of three naves, in the center of which there is a transept with a dome. In the depths of each nave there is an apse: in the largest one there is the main altar, the facing of which is made of bas-reliefs of a Christian sarcophagus of the 2nd-3rd centuries. It is worth paying attention to the strong slope of the floor covering, made in order to avoid flooding the presbytery during high tides. The walls of San Giovanni a Mare contain fragments of 15th century frescoes.

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Topic: Church of San Giovanni a Mare description and photos - Italy: Gaeta.