By: Mark Sukhija
The
Christian Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore was built in 533
by the then Bishop of Naples San Pomponio on the ruins of
a Roman building.
The name of "Pietrasanta" began to be used in the 17th Century as a stone inside was believed to grant indulgences to whoever kissed it.
During the 17th Century, Cosimo Fanzago started the reconstruction of the church with a large dome to which the tile and the majicola floor was added later in the 18th Century.
The Campanile, meters away, dates from the 10th and 11th Centuries and is the oldest in the city.
