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Church · Napoli (NA)

Baptistery of San Giovanni in Fonte

  • Visit: about 20 min
Pictured: Napoli · Wolfgang Moroder · CC BY-SA 3.0 · resized and cropped

A 4th-century Early Christian baptistery beside Santa Restituta, with precious 5th-century mosaics on blue and gold backgrounds.

From the right aisle of the basilica of Santa Restituta you enter one of the oldest and most evocative places in Naples: the Baptistery of San Giovanni in Fonte, from the Early Christian period. Sources attribute its founding to different bishops, but studies date the building to the 4th century, with alterations in the 5th. The square room is covered by a small, low dome.We recommend looking up at the 5th-century mosaics, on blue, turquoise and green backgrounds lit up with gold. They tell of baptism and the regenerating power of water. In the dome golden stars shine around the monogram of Christ between alpha and omega, and above the cross appears the hand of God holding a laurel wreath. Though fragmentary, they leave us breathless every time.

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