Chieti page 2

Chieti - San Giustino Cathedral

We will start our walk from the ring road of Via Asinio Herio, near Umberto I Plaza (called San Giustino Plaza) and the Building of justice. Once we leave our car in the big parking lot "terminal" (which can be reached by the entrances in Chieti following the direction "Park 500 lots") we get there with a comfortable escalator.
At the exit, we turn left toward the Cathedral. We can 't  note the wonderful view from the balcony on the Pescara valley running in the center. Downward you can see Chieti Scalo and the industriai area. In front, the Gran Sasso opens, with its profile suggesting a woman lying down "the sleeping beauty". On the left, the Majella and Marrone mountains, and the whole valley is spotted with little towns. All this is very startling at dawn.

SAN GIUSTINO CATHEDRAL

Imposing and elegant, San Giustino Cathedral is the symbol of the religious tradition of the City. Its dating goes back to the PaleoChristian epoch with a first votive nucleus that was erected on the ruins of a Pagan temple where the cult of Hercules was practiced. Roman evidences insist under the baptizing fountain and funereal inscriptions of the imperial period seem to confirm the presence, at that site, of a temple area with its own necropolis. The Church, most likely already damaged by the Visigothic incursions, suffers the destructive fury reserved to the city in 801 by Pipino il Breve, son of Carlo Magno. Reconstruction lasted from 840 to 1069. In 1335 the first three floors of the bell tower were built, and in 1498 the octagonal bell cell was constructed, surmounted by a cusp, which fell during the earthquake on November 3rd, 1706 (reconstructed only in 1931). The mullioned windows with two lights are valuable, they are operas by local sculptors, and open along the bell tower. A first integral restoration of the Church, which gains the current shape, occurred in 1769. From 1970 to 1976 the entire structure was subjected to consolidating works wanted by the archbishop Loris Capovilla, who was already particular secretary of Pope Giovanni XXIII.

Inside Cathedral

(Opened from 7:30-12:00 a.m. and 4:00-7:00 p.m.)The Cathedral, with three naves and transept and dome, shows a harmonious architectural shape, marked by wide spaces. The presbytery and the adjacent chapels are over the crypt according to the rule of the Abbruzzian Benedictine basils. The current pulpits and confessionals, and the chorus of the secretariat go back to 1744, these are by Abbruzian inlayers. The vault of the central nave proposes among other paintings an interesting fresco(middle of 800) representing Giustino, hermit on the Majella, receiving the nomination of bishop by a Teatin delegation. Entering. on the right, the baptizing fountain can be admired, made up of porphyry of Verona(1599). Up the staircase, which gives access to the transept, one after the other we meet the chapels dedicated respectively to San Gaetano da Thiene and to Mater Populi Teatini, two figures particularly present in the City cult. San Gaetano da Thiene (1480-1547), together with the Teatin bishop Pietro Carafa, elected Pope with the name of Paolo IV, in 1524 founded a religious order denominated 'Of the Teatini' so to prize the City of Chieti, the ancient T eate. The altar-piece, opera by the artist Ludovico Ve Majo (18th century), represents the Saint who has just received Jesus Christ from the hands of the Virgin. The chapel of 'Mater Populi Teatini' hosts a wooden renaissance statue(16th century).  The main altar is refined by a marble little altar­piece by the Napolitan School (1769), which tells of the offer of Episcopal insigna to San Giustino hermit by the people of Teate. The altar-piece represents the 'incredulity of S. Tommaso' and it is by Saverio Persico (middle 18th century). On the left of the altar, the Chapel

of San Giustino hosting a copy of the silver trunk of San Giustino created in 1455 by the famous goldsmith Nicola da Guardiagrele and stolen in 1983. The Chapel of the Immacolata follows, with altar-piece signed by Saverio Persico in 1759 and portraying the Madonna with San Nicola di Bari and San Gaetano Vescovo at her feet. Going down, in the nave a picture from 1776 can be noted, opera by Andrea Scapezzi, portraying San Giustino venerating the Assunta. The shape of the nave is interrupted by the magnificent neo-renaissance Chapel of the Santissimo Sacramento. In the closest, on the left, invaluable reliquaries are preserved, wich go from the 16th to the 19th century. Finally, the Chapel of the Vestizione, today known as of the 'secretariat', (the priests office, ring the door­bell to visit). The Chapel is   characterized by a precious wooden altar and by two hangings from the Napolitan School of the 18th century: 'Betania's Dinner' and last Dinner by Saverio Persico.