"The cathedral is dedicated to Bishop San Panfilo - protector of the city - and is the oldest church in Sulmona. It is located at the northern end of the town, at quite a distance from its original historical centre. According to tradition it was built in the 8th century on the ruins of a pagan temple dedicated to Apollo and Vesta. Another local legend suggests that after the death of the saint, his remains were moved from Corfinio to Sulmona and during transport they became so heavy that the carriers were forced to deposit them at the point where the church was later built.
Leaving aside these ideas, we know about the first historical cathedral from the Chronicon Casauriense (a valuable collection of facts and documents relating to the nearby Benedictine Monastery of San Clemente a Casauria, dating from the 12th century), which refers to an important building work undertaken in 1075 by Bishop Trasmondo and completed in 1119 by Bishop Walter.
Over the following centuries the church withstood fires and devastation that, together with the scourge of earthquakes that hit the territory repeatedly (in 1349, 1456 and the most disastrous in 1706), led to the depletion of the cathedral’s funds and the valuable chapter archive.
The earthquake of 1706, above all, seriously damaged the cathedral: the sacristy collapsed and the 14th-century bell tower and the adjacent bishop's palace suffered considerable damage and were not rebuilt. Subsequent restoration work mainly concerned the upper part of the building including the vaults of the three naves and the elegant stucco decorations and paintings in the new baroque style.
The oldest structures which survived the destruction, and still remain today, are the floor plan with the Romanesque colonnade, the crypt and part of the outer wall of the imposing semicircular stone apses. Also remaining from the original building is the small portal located on the left-hand side of the building, which connected the church to the Bishop’s residence which is very deteriorated by time and dates back to the 13th century. It has an inscription on the lintel in Lombard characters and fragments of Roman inscriptions in the lunette, which at one time was almost certainly frescoed.
The monument today is therefore the result of numerous restorations with a complex and layered architectural history.
The crypt
The crypt, the oldest part of the church, consisting of three semicircular apses, dating back to the restoration of Bishop Trasmondo. It is believed that the lateral columns with monolithic limestone shafts date back to the 10th century; while the perimeter part of the apses is different from the internal core. The room occupies the space of the upper presbytery area, divided into three naves with 16 columns, later reduced to 14 for the construction of the 17th-century altar of San Panfilo. The three rows of columns are placed at irregular distances and are not perfectly aligned, so the squaring of the cross vaults is irregular. At the foot of the central staircase is the Chapel of the Saint, with the altar in local stone inlaid with polychrome marble, erected in 1662 to thank the saint for the miracle against the plague of 1656.
Inside the altar is a niche with the reliquary bust of San Panfilo, in gilded copper, silver and enamel, a work from 1458 by Giovanni di Marino di Cicco sulmonese. Another valuable work is the Madonna and Child, a bas-relief in polychrome stone from the 12th century, called "Madonna delle Fronaci", which comes from Borgo Pinciaro in the western sector of the city, where there were furnaces for the production of tiles. Two side slabs are from the 13th century, made of marble and decorated with rosettes in relief, the painted back with the pair of coat-of-arms angels is later; two Roman weights are used as knobs. The work is probably reused after the earthquake.
On the wall to the right of the crypt there is a niche sepulchral monument from the second half of the 14th century, with a cuspidate and tympanum arcosolium and Agnus Dei at the top. The fresco depicts a Madonna and Child between Saint Michael the Archangel and Saint John the Baptist; on the intrados there is a medallion with Christ between evangelical symbols; on the front of the sarcophagus there are traces of a sinopia depicting a knight. Along the side walls there are rows of wooden seats, belonging to the 16th-century choir commissioned by Bartolomeo Balcone, restored after the earthquake of 1706. In an adjacent room there is a room dedicated to Celestine V, with the preservation of some relics of the saint and relics: a part of the heart, in a glass case, sacred clothing and vestments, a bust, a wooden crucifix from the hermitage of Sant'Onofrio al Morrone, some documents written by him and a penitential cilice."
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