The Cathedral of Our Lady of the Bridge, located in Lanciano, is the city’s main church and the seat of the Archdiocese of Lanciano-Ortona. Built over the Diocletian Bridge, an ancient Roman structure, it is a unique architectural monument. Elevated to a minor basilica in 1909 by Pope Pius X, it was declared a National Monument in 1940. The present church, built in the 18th century, replaced older structures, combining Neoclassical and Baroque styles. The facade, designed in 1819 by Eugenio Michitelli, was not completed until the 20th century. Inside are paintings by Giaginto Diano, frescoes in the vaults, the large dome rebuilt in the 1950s, and the sumptuous polychrome marble high altar by the Di Cicco brothers. The cathedral holds the revered statue of Our Lady of the Bridge, a terracotta work crowned in 1833, the centerpiece of popular devotion.
Beneath the cathedral stretches the Diocletian Auditorium, an archaeological complex that connects the church with the ancient Annunziata and the Shrine of the Eucharistic Miracle. Excavations have uncovered remains of a medieval bridge and a possible Roman bridge from the 3rd century A.D. Every December 23, the cathedral is the starting point for the tradition of the Squilla, a symbolic procession that evokes Mary and Joseph’s journey to Bethlehem.