Cattedrale di San Basso Termoli

Termoli Cathedral (Italian: Basilica Cattedrale di Santa Maria della Purificazione) is located in the oldest settlement of Termoli and it is one of the most important church of Molise Region. It represents the period of maximum economic expansion of the city – Middle Ages. Whit a magnificent and gorgeous aspect, it has the entrance door that is reached by climbing nine external steps.
The Cathedral was built over a pre-existing religious building, in turn, built in the 4th century, on a pagan temple dedicated to Castor and Pollux, the two Dioscuri, figures from Greek and Roman mythology, twin sons of Zeus. Inside it is possible to catch the double plant: the most ancient church, partially preserved, underneath the actual plant and the superior church, in which there are asymmetries and Romanesque-Gothic characteristics both in the square and rectangular spans, and in the use of round and ogival arches. The plant of the superior church is of basilican type, without transept, composed by three aisles with apses, that externally present binate hanging arches with thin small columns, and repeats the scansion of the underlying church. The presence of the oldest church determined, for the realization of the new one, the elevation of the floor.