History

The Beneventan Annals tell us that the church of S. Sofia was begun by Duke Gisulf II (742-51) of Benevento and finished by Arechis II (758-87). The latter was the founder of the female monastery established there, and completed before 774, on the model of S. Salvatore of Brescia. Arechis appointed his sister abbess of the new monastery, and granted it numerous properties, which made it one of the richest in Lombard Southern Italy. The monastic complex, whose dedication recalls the Haghia Sofia, was also enriched with the relics of the 12 Brothers in 760 and of St Mercurius in 768, thus turning it into the nucleus of ducal power and of the sacred geography of the city.

Arechis placed the monastery under the authority of Montecassino. Around 940, possibly as a result of the weakening prestige and political weight of S. Sofia, the female monastery was substituted by men, and in its new incarnation, became independent of Montecassino, which attempted to retake control of it in the second half fo the 11th century. S. Sofia opposed this attempt with the compilation of the Chronicon S. Sofiae, a catalogue of charters compelted in 1119, and still out main source for the study of the abbey.

The monastery of Arechis was destroyed by an earthquake in 986. The present-day complex ws built tin the second half of the 12th century, then abandoned in 1595. It now houses the Museo del Sannio. The church was severely damaged in the earthquakes of 1608 and 1702, and was restored before 1705 in the Baroque style, then again in 1957, when it was returned as close as possible to its original style.