Riuso dell'antico a Capri: la chiesa di Sant'Angelo a Cesina

Since the early Middle Ages, the cult of St. Michael the Archangel has characterized Southern Italy, as shown by toponyms, hagiographic production and, above all, numerous places of worship. Varied and articulated is the liturgical reality in Campania, where churches linked to the St. Michael sanctuary on Mount Gargano sprang up in a strategic position between the end of the 8th and the 9th century. As can be seen from the surveys carried out, there are more than forty cult places dedicated to St. Michael located on the Apennine and sub-Apennine mountains of Campania. In Capri, on Mount St. Michael, there is a small church known by local tradition as S. Angelo a Cesina. The church, located in a largely unexplored archaeological area, reuses a cistern from the Roman imperial age, which was transformed in the early Middle Ages with the addition of an apse. The church is not well known to medieval studies and in the past has been the subject of research focused on the analysis of the paintings in the apsidal area and on the right wall. Here I present the results of a preliminary research based on the stratigraphic analysis of the context with its frescoes, the reinterpretation of published texts and the study of archive documents with the aim of providing new information on the archaeological evidence of the late antique and medieval period on Capri.