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The Sanctuary

The Sanctuary is located opposite the old town hall, founded in 1580 and dedicated to the martyr Saint Sebastian. The church, after the eruption of Vesuvius occurred in 1500, was rebuilt by the inhabitants of the hamlet of San Sebastian who paid fully the costs for jobs. We do not know if the church was rebuilt on the same site as the previous one. The work continued until 1580, according to some documents of the diocesan Naples, and gave birth to a very skinny building, without even the campanile.Fu dedicated to St. Sebastian Martyr, perhaps because it built on the remains of a shrine dedicated to the saint. The premises of the church, as reported by some documents of the eighteenth century, met l '”University”, or the administrative community. In 1743 finished work of beautification and renovation, that saw the creation of a marble baptismal font, a new altar, two new chapels. The church, placed on a high staircase in lava rock, has a neoclassical façade, with two pairs of Corinthian pilasters that are repeated in the higher. The interior, with un'unica navata, has six side chapels with marble altars. Pillars decorated with Corinthian capitals supporting the arches of access to the chapels and the bow end of the nave. Very valuable organ in painted and gilded wood, dating back to 700, at the center of the choir on the entrance door. By Domenico Antonio Rossi, known organ builder serving the sovereign Neapolitan, is divided into three compartments with 19 cylindrical rods in pond. Numerous works enriched the church including a painting of the eighteenth century Neapolitan school representing the Madonna and Child with St. Sebastian and a wooden statue of the Virgin, work of the eighteenth century by a local artist, stolen after the earthquake 1980. Going underground crypt is located, dating back a few centuries before the construction of the Cathedral Church.

The Mother Church of San Sebastiano al Vesuvio, elevated to the dignity of the Diocesan Shrine 20 January 2007, was founded in 1580 University of Santo Sebastiano del Casale. The sixteenth-century Church, who acquired the title of Sebastian Martyr, was built on an earlier church dedicated to Our Lady of Loreto. In December 1580, by order of the Archbishop of Naples Annibale of Capua was elevated to parish by the Vicar General Monsignor Vincenzo Quattromani and detached from the parish church of St. Mary of the Assumption of the nearby hamlet of Massa di Somma. This spiritual union had his reasons in the fact that the house of Massa di Somma included a time also the territory of Saint Sebastian. Only in the mid-sixteenth century Santo Sebastiano, become farmhouse, separated by Massa. The newly erected parish, very small, was built hastily and without a plan. Due to the state of poverty of the inhabitants was not even possible to build up the church tower the only bell was placed on a wooden beam sticking out from the brick pillars of the vestibule. In the early seventeenth century, at the back of the sanctuary was begun early extension work and to the left of the façade began work on the construction of the bell tower. In Santa's Visit 1622 describes a new church at the altar of the SS. Rosary and Our Lady of Grace, described in Santa's Visit 1598, were added to those of San Gennaro and the Saints Dominic and Francis. The bell tower, although devoid of plaster, already possessed a bell magna which was blessed by Monsignor Domenico Invitti. Under the regency of the parish priest Don Gennaro Mink (16981749) were made work for the building up of the majestic dome fanzaghiana. The project, likely, is due to the architect Giovan Battista Manni present in San Sebastian already at the end of the seventeenth century. In the eighteenth century, the architectural structure of the church, compromised by earthquakes caused by Vesuvius, was urgent for a radical restructuring effort. In 1730 indeed, University of Casale di San Sebastiano did Tavolario run by the Sacred Council, Costantino Manni, son of Giovan Battista, the estimate of expenditure. The cost, which amounted to six hundred ducats, was turned down by the Public Council of San Sebastiano in two hundred and fifty, and was donated by way of alms. It is not excluded that to direct the work was commissioned just the architect Costantino Manni. For more than ten years, the church became a large construction site the majestic interior decorative plant, we admire today, was performed in those years. In Santa's Visit 1743 Archbishop of Naples, Giuseppe Spinelli, called the mother church with the words' this church of San Sebastiano confronted with those of the three neighboring countries, surpasses them all for her beauty '. The three neighboring countries, not mentioned, had to be Massa di Somma, Pollena and Trocchia. It was through the request of the mayor Domenico Scarpato that in 1778 Sacred Congregation of Rites sent the decree by which the Glorious San Sebastiano was elected chief patron of the farmhouse. This event formed the pattern of the Committee, between 1778 and 1782, the prestigious wooden sculpture to the workshop of the sculptor Giuseppe Sarno. During the years when he was pastor Don Gennaro Maria Women (18941914) the church of San Sebastiano, as is clear from the header of the parish records, acquired the ancient title of Santa Maria di Loreto, the same who had before 1580. Parish in the district of the mother church of San Sebastiano al Vesuvio over the Church of the Immaculate Conception and St. Anthony of Cercola, erected by Caesar in Filangieri 1755, has also included the old chapel of St. Michael the Archangel of Lofrano, located in the locality Volla. The vestibule of 1580, that anticipated entry, we came to the intact 1930, year in which it was decided to abolish it for the expansion of the parish church. When transferring the input below it, was recovered space that became available thanks to the demolition of the vestibule. In this massacre the Mother Church was deprived even of the rear facade of the eighteenth century, centrally characterized by a refined window ansated. The current facade, that goes below the median entablature the Latin inscription DIVO SEBASTIAN DICATVM, was designed by the Emerigo Gerbasio and was built by the contractor of Mr. Small Umberto. Written by Bernard Cozzolino . Source : http://www.sansebastianoalvesuvio.eu