Description of the attraction
Sant Hilario a Port'Aurea is a former church, one of the oldest buildings in Benevento, dating back to the era of the Lombards. It is located on Via San Pasquale, which was once part of the ancient Trajan road, in a small walled square. The name of the church comes from the Arch of Trajan, which in the Middle Ages was known as Porta Aurea.
The church of Sant'Ilario has a simple rectangular shape with a semicircular apse. The building has two turrets with a tiled roof of different heights, and under them there are two domes, visible from the inside. The church has two entrances: one is located in the wall that faces the Arch of Trajan, the other is in the apse. Inside, both entrances are connected by walkways.
Today Sant-Hilario a Port'Aurea is under the jurisdiction of the Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Cultural Activities - a video museum is planned to be set up here: a half-hour film "Stories of the Arch" will be shown with the help of projectors on the walls of the church.
Probably, the church of Sant'Ilario is of Lombard origin (6-7th century) - it was built on the ruins of an older temple. And the first mentions of it and the adjacent monastery are found in 1148. At the end of the 17th century, the church was secularized and turned into an ordinary peasant house. Over the past centuries, the appearance of the building has changed several times, and today little remains of its original structure. Only in 1952, the first restoration work of the church began, which was carried out with the support of Mario Rotili, mayor of Benevento in 1956-63. The restoration of the ancient building was finally completed only in 2003.
