The works in the Cathedral between the 18th and 19th centuries

The new phase of works began in the early 18th century with the frescoed decorative repertories featuring architectural orders, Prophets, Doctors, and Sibyls, created by the painter Antonio Maria Purano. In 1740, the installation of a new brick flooring with stone bands and ellipses was arranged: a renewed context that was celebrated by the reconsecration of the building in 1752 by Archbishop Antinori. Just two years later, in 1754, the arrival of Monsignor Giacomo Leto from Naples was marked by a strong desire to renew the Cathedral to bring it in line with Neapolitan and Roman religious buildings.

The work began with the demolition of the 16th-century brick altar in 1762, to be replaced by a similar marble one. In the same year, the new high altar, designed by the Neapolitan architect Gennaro Campanile and built by the Neapolitan stonemason Crescenzo Trinchese, was consecrated. Finally, in 1778, the procurators of the Holy House entrusted the task of redesigning the temple to the Neapolitan engineer Domenico Prezioso and the Ticinese architect and stuccatore Carlo Fantoni. The project, started in 1785 and completed in 1794, albeit with modifications, resulted in a single nave preceded by a vestibule, with a raised presbytery covered by a dome. This layout was influenced by Vignola’s model for the Church of the Gesù in Rome, particularly in terms of the unity of perspective-light relationships. The stucco and decorative contributions are attributed to artists from Como, such as Alessandro Terzani, responsible for the faux marble and Venetian stucco decorations. The extensive work led to the destruction of the decorative elements created by Antonio Purano at the beginning of the century. Therefore, the Neapolitan Giacinto Diano was commissioned to create a new cycle of frescoes for the vaults and the dome, completed between 1787 and 1788. Between 1790 and 1793, he also painted twenty lunettes and two large altarpieces for the side altars depicting the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary and the Martyrdom of Saint Stephen. The church was reopened in 1788, while work was still ongoing, and between 1790 and 1792, the creation of five smaller side altars and the Chapel of the Sacrament effectively concluded a long and complex 18th-century renovation phase.

The 19th century began with façade projects for the Cathedral by the Teramo engineer Michitelli, who completed the neoclassical-style façade between 1822 and 1825. It featured a projecting tetrastyle pronaos divided into three parts by four Corinthian columns, although the ancient atrium built in 1640 and the adjacent Church of the Annunciation were sacrificed.

Starting from the second half of the 19th century, the engineer Filippo Sargiacomo was repeatedly called to collaborate on the multi-century construction of the Cathedral of Lanciano. In 1894 and again in 1908, he was invited to develop a completion project for the façade, while in 1870, he was commissioned to work on the flooring (the presbytery had previously been paved with marble in 1850), which was later completed by the Veronese stonemason Giuseppe Lugo Boni. Drawings, axonometric views, and sketches of both interventions are preserved in his private archive. Sargiacomo’s projects for the episcopal throne (1894), the wooden pulpit (1873), and the external walkway from the Chapel of the Sacrament to the rear of the high altar were also executed, while the sensitivity he showed in designing a low portico on the side façade adjacent to the new Corso Trento e Trieste was not maintained due to the later concealment of the side of the Cathedral with the construction of a multi-story building without porticoes.