 Introduction
Gracing Piazza Sant'Antonino and one of the largest churches in Sorrento, the Basilica di Sant'Antonino honors the city's patron saint, St. Anthony Abbot.
 History
The Basilica was erected in the XI century in the place where an antique oratory (IX century), dedicated to Saint Antonino stood, where rested the mortal remains of the Saint that here found refuge during the Longobard invasion. He was born in Campagna, a town near Salerno, came to Sorrento and here died on 15 February 471. Saint Antonino is the patron saint of navigators and of the city of Sorrento. In c.1300 it became the home of the Confraternita dei Battenti, an heretical confraternity originating from Naples. It was splendidly restored in the C17th by the Theatine Fathers.
 Location
Address: Piazza Sant'Antonino, Sorrento, Italy
Directions: From Piazza Tasso, proceeding along De Maio Street, you arrive, in 5 minutes, at the Basilica of Saint Antonino, set in the homonymous square.
 Whats to see
The church and the portal on the right side date from the 10th century. Its nave and side aisles are divided by recycled ancient columns, and the interior is Baroque style. On the inside of the Church are valuable paintings of Giovanni Bernardo Lama and the representation of the siege of Sorrento in 1648, a splendid painting by Giacomo Del Po. Even the Vestry of the Church contains two precious treasures: the fragments of an antique and elaborated majorica pavement and a beautiful Neapolitan Christmas crib of the 17th century, with statues made by the most famous sculptors of the school of Sammartino. The clothes of the shepherds are made of precious fabrics enriched by valuable laces. In a crypt - remade in 1753 -the tomb of Saint Antonino is arranged. Of remarkable interest is the collection of votive offerings present in the Church donated particularly by seamen who have escaped shipwrecks.
In the lobby of the Church two whale ribs are posted as a memento of the most famous miracle attributed to the patron Saint of Sorrento. It is narrated, in fact, that a whale had swallowed a child and that the Saint liberated the young boy drawing him safe and sound from the mouth of the whale. As testimony of this wonderful miracle, the people of Sorrento placed these two whale bones at the entrance of the Basilica in honor of the Saint. Directly opposite across the piazza is the turn-of-the-20th-century Municipio (town hall).
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