Baptistery of San Giovanni in Fonte, Naples
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The Baptistery of San Giovanni is a Paleochristian baptistery attached to the Santa Restituta church in Naples, Italy. It is the oldest surviving baptistery from medieval Europe.[1]
The baptistery was likely built in the fourth century. There are conflicting accounts of who commissioned the construction of the baptistery and when. Severus, the twelfth bishop of Naples, is often credited with its construction in the late fourth century.[2] The construction of the baptistery by Severus is chronicled in John the Deacon’s Gesta episcoporum Neapolitanorum.[3] However, the thirteenth–fourteenth century work Chronicle of Saint Mary of the Principle, credits Constantine the Great with the building of the baptistery at the same time as the S. Restituta during the early fourth century.[4] The architecture and mosaic style lead researchers to believe that the baptistery was more likely to have been constructed in the later fourth century. The baptistery was remodeled under the nineteenth Bishop of Naples, Soter (465–486).[2]
