Nola Cathedral

The Nola Cathedral is the main church or duomo of Nola, a municipality within Naples in Campania, Italy.

History

A church at the site likely dates to paleochristian times, when a chapel was founded around the tomb of Saint Felice, a martyred bishop of the region. It was reconstructed in a gothic-style the 1370s under the patronage of Count Niccolò Orsini. It was consecrated both to The Blessed Virgin and the Saints Felice Martire and Paolino. The crypt has traces of the older building. It was rebuilt over the centuries, including 1583, and later in 1861 by fire; the last time it was reconstructed in a Neoclassic style. Among the artists and architects involved were Nicola Breglia, Salvatore Cepparullo and Paolo Vetri. It was completed in 1909. With the reconsecration, the spolia of San Felice were brought back to the church. In the 9th or 10th century they had been removed by the Lombards from a church in Cimitile, and taken to the Benevento Cathedral, and from ther in the 11th century to San Bartolomeo sull'Isola Tiberina in Rome.

The tomb in the crypt is supposed to have a Miracle of Manna occuring as a substance oozes out of the tom of the saint.