Early 20th-century English writers describe the church as in dilapidated condition,[3] stating it would have gone to ruins had it not been for government intervention in the 1880s.
[4] According to these authors, who ostensibly derived their knowledge from "an old history,"[3] the consecration took place in 1069, and that the church was built by orders of one of the Dukes of Amalfi.
An eagle supports the reading desk, and it holds a book opened to the first sentence of the Gospel of John.
The "beautiful"[7] pulpit, which dates from the time of Roger I of Sicily,[8] also contains Oriental pottery ("underglaze-painted and lustre-painted stonepaste bowls, probably Syrian"[9]) and Arabic script,[4] and the steps up to it contain well-preserved frescoes with scenes from the life of Christ.
[10] There is a side chapel with a stucco figure of Saint Catherine and her wheel.