What to see · Afragola

More places of interest

• Basilica di Sant'Antonio di Padova

  The basilica of Sant'Antonio di Padova is a Baroque shrine, later raised to a minor basilica, with an attached convent of the Reformed Friars Minor, in Afragola: the cult of Saint Anthony has made it a famous place of pilgrimage and has earned Afragola the name of the «Padua of the South».

  What to see

  It was built from 1633, with the attached convent of the Reformed Friars Minor of the Franciscan order, despite the opposition of the Dominicans. The cult of Saint Anthony, with a feast on 13 June, has made the shrine a famous place of pilgrimage. Since 18 February 1995 it has been officially twinned with the basilica of Saint Anthony in Padua, although informal contacts had always existed: on that occasion the Conventual Friars Minor of Padua gave the town an important relic of the saint, a piece of thoracic muscle about six centimetres long, kept in a small chapel at the back of the Trono del Santo. Since 6 January 2017 the shrine has also been twinned with the shrine of Saint Anthony in Lisbon, the city that in 1195 gave the saint his birth.

  The interior, faced with marble, has three naves, with an apse and chapels on the left side. It keeps a miraculous crucifix attributed to Brother Umile da Petralia and a wooden statue of Saint Anthony of Padua of the seventeenth century, placed in a large tabernacle of 1922 known as the «Trono del Santo»; there is also a marble pulpit by Francesco Jerace, as well as other notable works of art. In the sacristy is a painting by Agostino Beltrano of the apparition of the Christ Child to Saint Anthony, of 1630. On the left of the shrine rises the tall bell tower.

  Visiting

  The basilica is in Afragola, in the main built-up area, with the convent and the seraphic college. The sources consulted give no opening hours or visiting arrangements: check them; the saint's feast is on 13 June.

  Our editors' tip

  The convent houses the library of the Convent of Sant'Antonio, which holds over eighteen thousand volumes, among them many unique or rare pieces.

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