Good Friday seemed like a good day to visit the local cathedral. Oddly, we had the place much to ourselves. A total to 10 people were inside while we were there which seemed to be a very small number. It was nice to be able to take our time and inspect any little thing we wanted to without any pressure from the crowd. The only crowds we saw were on the streets, we ended up getting off the bus early as we could walk faster than the bus was running. That turned out ok as well since we got to walk around in the old town of Salerno on our way to the cathedral.
Some nicer buildings as we neared the old town
A big square with little flags showing up on the buildings
Decorations down on ground level
The bell tower!
The cathedral was also called the Duomo
A large open courtyard
Arches all around
Sarcophagi
Richly decorated
Very interesting decorations scattered about
The front doors are huge
Also very detailed
Inside we find interesting artifacts
Not the average stiff pose for a deceased clergy
Pondering eternity
The interior is very bright and the light ceiling makes it look larger
The cross is covered n red fabric
Side knaves are very elaborate
Relics from a saint
Many items in the holy trophy case
Stabbed with 7 swords
The tile work on the floor was amazing
To think about how many folks labored to make these floors
So many square meters of floor rto cover
We saw similar rock plates n Istanbul.
The back of the sanctuary had three large dome topped recessed areas
Golden decorations
Elaborate metal gates
From this side of the building we went down to the crypt
The crypt was a stunner!
Compared to the relatively modest amount of decorations upstairs
The downstairs crypt is like an entirely different place
So much stone inlay
The cremains of notable locals
It is quite large
We wondered how many different types of stone were used
Such detail
Flowers in stone inlay
An altar
Something this small must have taken days to create
On our way up we passed a small room dedicate to an archbishop
This plaque described the travels of Matthews body after being martyred in Ethiopia
we traversed the length of the crypt and emerged on the left side of the sanctuary
The center dome
Behold the gold
Some of the tile work is displayed independently
Panels up on the walls
The center dome
I was able to do some birding inside. Here we find the red legged inlay crows
These tiles may be from Vietri sul Mare, the next town over
Another bird
Finally a raptor to finish up today's bird list
Nearing the exit
We have reemerged
