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Church of St Erasmus in Formia: fifteen centuries of history in the district of Castellone
The Church of Sant'Erasmo is located in the district of Castellone in Formia. It is one of the oldest places of worship in the area: beneath the floor lies an archaeological site spanning from the 1st to the 18th century.
From cathedral to parish church
The church stands over the burial site of St Erasmus, the first bishop of Formia, martyred sometime between the 3rd and 4th centuries. Pope Gregory the Great mentioned the church as early as 590. Further to the Saracen raids of the 9th century, the episcopal see was moved to Gaeta, and the cathedral was downgraded to a simple church. In 919 the Benedictines built a monastery next to it — later acquired by the Abbey of Montecassino between 1058 and 1066. In 1491 the commendatory abbot Giuliano della Rovere, the future Pope Julius II, sold everything to the Olivetan monks, who remained there until the suppression of religious orders in 1806. Since then the parish has been administered by diocesan clergy.
What to see inside and beneath the church
Inside there are three naves with Gothic pillars and cross vaults. The high altar is Baroque, made of polychrome marble. The pipe organ was built in 1912 by an English organ builder, Thomas Pendlebury, for a Methodist church in Yorkshire, and arrived in Formia in 1988. But the real eye-opener is underneath: between 1970 and 1976, excavations brought to light a Roman necropolis, a 4th-century martyrial tomb, a Carolingian crypt and 11th-century Benedictine workshops.
