After the impersonal facade on Via Duomo, theChurch of San Giorgiopresents itself as the most beautiful baroque church in Salerno, full of fine frescoes. It dates back to the 8th century, built on the foundations of an even older church dedicated to the eastern saint.
The church, which we see today, is part of the renovation, realized in the last thirty years of the seventeenth century, of the ancientMonastery of San Giorgio, which currently houses the Carabinieri barracks and the finance guard. With the post-earth restoration of 1980, below the current floor, the remains of a structure have emergedapse fresco, before the 10th century: to make them visible an electrical device has been installed that lifts the floor.
The interior of the church is a unique nave, covered by a barrel vault, with side chapels, a rectangular transept, surmounted by a dome, and a square space behind the altar.
In this church are to be reported:
– the table by Andrea Sabatini from Salerno with the Virgin with the Child between St. Augustine, St. Scolastica, St. Benedict and an Evangelist (1523);
– the frescoes by Angelo and Francesco Solimena of the second half of the 17th century. Of F. Solimena are the stories of the Sante Tecla, Archelaa and Susanna and the painting with San Michele Arcangelo;
– the indorated stucco of the Vietnamese artisan Nicola d’Acunto (1694-1695);
– the sixteenth-century high altar in polychrome marble, with mother-of-pearl inserts and white marble reliefs, with the statue of St. George killing the dragon, attributed to the masters of Carraresi Pietro and Bartolomeo Ghetti;
– the series of paintings, placed on the counterfaceted and transept, work of the early 1700s by Giovanni Battista Lama, pupil of Paolo de Matteis.