Description of the attraction
San Giovanni a Mare, popularly known as San Giuseppe, is a church in the heart of Gaeta on Via Bozan facing the port. The current building of the church stands on the site of a small antique chapel destroyed during the 1213 earthquake. Between the 15th and 17th centuries, San Giovanni a Mare was decorated with frescoes and baroque plaster decorations (stucco). At the same time, a marble main altar and small altars made of artificial marble appeared in the church. At the end of the 19th century, a small mobile organ of the Neapolitan school was donated to the temple, which, unfortunately, was lost in the 70s of the 20th century.
In the 20th century, the building of San Giovanni a Mare was reconstructed several times. Major restoration work was carried out here in 1928, when all the baroque decorations were removed. And from 1998 until the beginning of the 21st century, work was carried out to strengthen the structure of the building.
The simple gable façade of the church is crowned with a small bell tower with three arches that contain the same number of bells. In the center of the façade you can see a small round rosette window, under which is a portal with a frescoed Gothic lunette. While the right side of the church is inscribed in a residential area, the left side and the apse face a small pedestrian area. On the left, you can see the original dome of San Giovanni a Mare, decorated with small hanging arches and beautiful mosaics reminiscent of the Byzantine. From the back of the church, you can see its three apses.
Inside, the temple consists of three naves, in the center of which there is a transept with a dome. In the depths of each nave there is an apse: in the largest one there is the main altar, the facing of which is made of bas-reliefs of a Christian sarcophagus of the 2nd-3rd centuries. It is worth paying attention to the strong slope of the floor covering, made in order to avoid flooding of the presbytery during high tides. On the walls of San Giovanni a Mare there are fragments of 15th century frescoes.
