Chiesa
di S.Costanzo
 This
church dedicated to St. Constant in
the district of Aiano di Sotto, is historically very significant since,
up to 1596, it was the Episcopal see, established on the island
towards the end of the 10th C. by the archbishop of Amalfi. It became a hermitage
from 1596 to 1878 and was occupied by the English in 1808 and later by
the French up to 1816 when it was again opened to worship.
It probably overlays two pre-existing religious constructions:
the first one erected by Benedictine monks over the relics of St.
Constant who, according to the legend, landed on this island in the 7thC
and was appointed protector against Saracen forays by the local
population. The other one
was built at the time of the establishment of the Episcopal see. The church, on the left of the street, shows the Angevin
coat-of-arms above a Gothic portal in Sorrentine tufa which is probably
original, while the façade is the result of a reconstruction performed
in 1870 when the gable was eliminated to allow the addition of upper
rooms; the coat-of-arms was also added on this occasion.
The original façade was reproduced on a cup which, up to World
War II, was kept at the Museo Filangieri in Naples; it can still be
admired in a water painting published by Edwin Cerio in Convegno
del Paesaggio. The
church was restored in 1928-29. The
interior shows two successive architectural structures; the first one,
dated between the 9thC and the 12thC, follows the Byzantine pattern, a
Greek cross inscribed in a square, which can be observed in quite a
number of monuments in Southern Italy and in Greece; the second one, a
square presbytery at the back of the church, was built in the 14thC.
The quadrangular area of the Byzantine structure is taken up by
two naves which intersect forming a Greek cross; a cupola marks the
point of intersection of the two arms, while four small chapels with low
cross-vaulting occupy the corner areas.
The cupola has eight windows, , those facing the cardinal points
are open to the light, the other four are blind. A multitude of arches
create a particularly pleasing effect.
They used to rest on twelve old yellow and cipolin marble columns
taken from the ruins of Roman villas. Today only the shafts are left, in
marble, granite and stonework. One
column still has the capital, the others have a plain stucco abacus.
As for the second structure, it is believed that Giacomo Arcucci
was directly involved, because fragments of a marble sarcophagus bearing
the Arcucci coat-of-arms, were found under the church.
There is a bas-relief of St. Constant’s head on the keystone of
the vault and four coarse figures, probably symbols of the evangelists,
are carved in the corbels. The
external view of the church, with the bell-tower set aside from the main
structure, the cylindrical cupola with a cone-shaped spire topped by a
pommel and Mount Solaro as a backdrop, is ruined by a multi-storied
council house at the back and a garage on the side.
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