The Chapel of the Bishop's Palace

The Chapel of the Bishop's Palace

The chapel is the spiritual heart of the bishop's residence. On entering, the eye is immediately drawn to the 19th-century marble altar against the end wall, a refined example of late Neoclassical style, surmounted by an 18th-century painting of St Amatus blessing the town of Nusco. This space for prayer and worship was chosen to house the collection of reliquaries of different periods and styles. To the right of the entrance, in the old sacristy, a modern relic room has been created, holding eleven reliquaries. Six are bust or casket reliquaries, named after the shape of their base, and five are body-part reliquaries, shaped like parts of the human body such as arms and legs. Dating from the 16th and 17th centuries, they come, according to a long-standing tradition, from the Abbey of San Guglielmo at Goleto, and were moved to the mother church of San Nicola in Gesualdo after the Napoleonic suppression of 1807.

Particularly moving is the small 18th-century reliquary displayed in the case opposite the relic room. It takes the form of a half-length bust of a child, with a precious silver case set in the centre of the chest containing relics of the Holy Innocents, the infants whom King Herod had killed to prevent the newborn "King of the Jews" from taking his place. It is made of silvered papier-mâché, a humble material that contrasts with the gilded bronze pedestal and its silver ornaments.