Sant'Angelo in Formis

S. Angelo in formees is a pre-Romanesque Benedictine abbey at Capua with one of the best preserved Romanesque frescoes.

The church was built in the 6th century on the remains of a Roman temple of Diana, and be renewed in the following centuries under fundamental retaining the original form more than once. The facade dates from the 12th century.

Significant is the decoration of the church interior, the abbot Desiderius was around 1080 run by Byzantine artists. About the walls of the nave and the apse extends one of the most extensive and best preserved Romanesque frescoes with scenes from the Old and New Testament as well as two representations of a Majestas Domini. Especially the Majestas Domini in the apse is interesting because Byzantine, Roman and early Christian Carolingian modes of representation were combined. So Christ does not appear in the mandorla, but sitting on a throne, which probably dates back to Roman and early Christian motifs. Untypical of the Byzantine traditions also is the combination of Majestas Domini with the four symbols of the Evangelists, which in turn probably refers to Carolingian models.