Santa Sofia, Benevento

Santa Sofia is a Roman Catholic church in the town of Benevento, in the region of Campania, in southern Italy; founded in the late-8th century, it retains many elements of its original Lombard architecture.

The church was part of a large program of construction which would legitimate Arechis' claim as the highest Lombard authority, after his failed attempt to acquire the title of king and the renaming of the duchy as a principality.

The sanctuary also housed the relics of Saint Mercurius, which putatively had been abandoned in 633 near Quintodecimo by the eastern Roman emperor Constans II.

The restoration work, started in 1705, transformed the plan from a stellar to a circular one, added two side chapels, and changed the appearance of the apse, of the façade and of the pillars.

In the center there are six columns, perhaps taken from the city's ancient Temple of Isis, placed at the vertices of a hexagon and connected by arches which support the dome.

The elevated central body recalls the no-longer extant church of Santa Maria in Pertica of Pavia, while the articulation of the volumes shows the influence of Byzantine architecture.