Sant’Antonino is "Patron, Lawyer and Father" of Sorrento and the peninsula. To the Saint who protects the city from calamities, epidemics and to whom numerous miracles are attributed, is dedicated the basilica in the homonymous square.
Probably built around the year one thousand on the oratory near the sepulchre of the Saint, in the following centuries the Basilica of Sant’Antonino was the object of restoration and remodeling that contributed to give it its present baroque appearance. At the entrance of the basilica two cetacean bones recall the most famous miracle performed by St. Antonino, that is to say that he saved a child who had been swallowed by a whale. The interior is divided into three naves divided by twelve columns (6 on each side), partly coming from Roman villas. The ceiling of the nave is decorated with three canvases by Giambattista Lama (1734): in the middle is depicted St. Antonino in the act of liberating the daughter of Sicardo, Prince of Benevento, from the devil; in the side rounds are represented Saints Gaetano Thiene and Andrea Avellino. From the side aisles one descends into the Crypt with a vault resting on eight bare columns. In the middle of the hypogeum there is the altar on which there is the statue of St. Antonino behind which there is the perennial oil lamp. In memory of one of the miracles performed by the Saint, it is devotion for the faithful to mark themselves with the oil of which the silver foil on the back of the statue is anointed. Under the altar are preserved the remains of the patron saint; on the walls a rich collection of votive offerings, a gift from the sailors who escaped shipwrecks, and paintings depicting miraculous rescues.
