Miscellaneous Churches
5
to parts: (1) (2) (3) (4) (6)
From the clean, white,
unadorned exterior
of the church, it is not at all evident that the premises are a
repository of
medieval and Baroque art, but it is so; most of the art from the
original
church
was moved to the new one. This include works by Marco Pino, Giovanni
Balducci,
and Paolo de Matteis. (The large canvasses
are arrayed along both sides
of the
church; otherwise the walls would be totally bare, which means that the
original plans for the new church foresaw the placing of such art work
in the
interior.) The parish priest, Don
Raffaele Sogno,
may be the only one in
 The
dome and belfry of the basilica of
Santa Maria della Sanità rise conspicuously above
the modern road level.
"Modern," in this case refers to the early 1800s, when the French rulers of Naples decided to extend
the main road, via Toledo, north out of the city and up to the Capodimonte Palace. The new road
essentially passed above the section of Naples called "Sanità,"
still
today one of the most crowded sections of the city, the tight and
twisting
alleys of which were largely untouched by modern renovations of the
city
in the 20th century. The road was called "Corso Napoleone" for a short
time after it was built but is now via Santa Teresa
degi Scalzi (named for the nearby church of Santa
Teresa degli
Scalzi,
the first church and monastery [1612] of the Discalced Carmelite Order
in Naples. "Discalced" means "barefoot"). At the point where the street
passes over the Sanità,
the street name changes to Corso
Amedeo di Savoia Duca d'Aosta.S. Maria della Sanità (interior)  The church is popularly
referred to as "San
Vincenzo della
Sanità," after the Dominican saint, Vincenzo Ferreri,
particularly revered in the Sanità quarter of Naples. The
basilica was built
between 1602 and 1613 and was actually built atop an
original house of worship buried by mudslides centuries earlier and
rediscovered
in 1569. The original church was connected to the veneration
of San Gaudioso bishop of Abitina in
the Roman province of Africa
(approximately,
parts of modern Tunisia and The Basilica is considered one of the most important monuments to the Counter-Reformation in Naples and the interior is a palimpsest, from preexisting burial grounds to architecture of the Counter-Reformation and then to more modern works including 19th-century handicraft and recently acquired works of modern art. Art work on the premises includes a number of paintings by Luca Giordano. The spectacular marble pulpit and double stairway combine to form one of the most theatrical affairs of its kind in any church in the city and, perhaps, in all of Italy. That construction is from the years 1677-1705. Towering above the scene is a magnificent organ from the early 1700s, last restored in 1940. According to information from Gian Marco Vitagliano, a Neapolitan restorer of such instruments, this one has two manuals (keyboards) and about 2,000 pipes. It is, alas, not currently in working order and plans for restoration are unclear.  The
church of San
Giorgio dei Genovesi is
on via Medina between the City Hall
and the
main
police station. There used to be a sign indicating that
the premises were the site of something called the University
Chapel. Now, however, the premises have recently been acquired as
classroom space for the "Parthenope"
University of Naples.The church was finished in 1620, which makes
it old in
some places in the world but not in
Naples; indeed, it stands next to a church that was built 300 years
earlier.
The term Genovesi in the name—as with "Fiorentini" (above)—indicates that it originally served the
needs of a foreign community, in this case Genova. San
Giorgio dei Genovesi was built on the site of the first
commercial
theater in Naples. The church is the work of Bartolomeo
Picchiatti (b.  Santa Lucia al
Monte is in the middle of what was once a vast Franciscan
monastic complex from the 1550s. The entire complex was set onto the
site of a ready-made flat space in the hillside, an excavated Angevin
quarry from the 1300s. It is directly below the San Martino hill on the
Corso Vittorio Emanuele at a point where that east-west road makes a
turn to the north. The area enjoys an unobstructed view to the east and
south towards the sunrise, Mt. Vesuvius, and the Sorrentine peninsula.
When the monastery was built, it was totally out of the city in a truly
bucolic setting. It may no longer be bucolic, but it is still scenic; thus— with the fate of monasteries being what it
was in the 1800s in Italy (they were all closed)—the monastery premises on the left
(facing the church) now serve as a many-starred luxury hotel, San Francesco al Monte; the
premises around the corner to the right are now used by the department
of jurisprudence of the nearby Suor Orsola university. The church has
recently been restored. The
church of San Giovanni Battista delle
Monache is on via Costantinopoli just outside (west) of what
used to be original Greek and Roman wall of the city. The nucleus of
the church/convent was started in 1597 by a group of sisters ("monache"
in the name of the church) from Capua. The construction proceeded
sporadically as the order bought up pieces of property in the area, and
it
was not until 1673 that the whole site was given some coherent design
under the eye of one of the great
architects of the time, Antonio Francesco Picchiati. The finishing
touches on the impressive facade and corridors of the convent were
done by Giovan Battista Nauclerio in the early 1700s. The church is in
the form of a Latin cross with lateral chapels; the main altar is
adorned by Luca Giordano's John the Baptist Preaching.The church is now across the street, laterally, from the Academy of Fine Arts. Actually, the Academy is the original convent. That situation arose as a result of the closure of the monastery in the early 1800s by the government of Murat and then, in the 1850s, a massive restructuring of this ancient area that saw the laying of the new street that divided the convent church from the convent itself. After the unification of Italy, the convent premises were converted to be the art academy.  Santa
Maria a Cappella Nuova. This inconspicuous, though
colorful,
church is a tiny clerical remnant of what was
once a gigantic monastic complex on the eastern side of Piazza dei
Martiri. The
complex had paleo-Christian origins,
being the site of a
chapel
dedicated to the Virgin Mary from the fifth century. According to
tradition,
that chapel, itself, was on the site of an earlier Roman Much of the ancient
religious structure
was bought by Giuseppe Sessa in the early 1700s and converted to a
private
dwelling, still called "Palazzo Sessa." It was the official residence
of the English ambassador to the Kingdom of Naples, William
Hamilton, and Lady Hamilton and Lord Nelson had apartments there;
also,
Goethe
visited in 1787. What was once the courtyard of the entire
complex is
now a dead-end alley named via Santa
Maria a Cappella Vecchia that runs in from Piazza dei Martiri
and
is the site of a few antique
shops, a
gymnasium (the ex-old chapel!), and also provides passage to the Jewish
synagogue of
 The
church of San Domenico Soriano
is directly across the street from the large square, Piazza Dante. As with all the other large
churches on that side of the street for many blocks on this main
thoroughfare of downtown Naples, San Domenico Soriano was once part of
a much larger monastic complex. All such monasteries were closed in the
early 1800s under Murat. Some were
reopened in 1816 but closed again in the 1860s after the unification of
Italy. This monastery, however—the yellow
adjacent building on the south aide of the church—was never reopened as such. It served
as a military barracks between 1816 and 186; it now houses Naples
municipal office space. The church was started in 1619, with basic construction not complete until 1660. The monastic grounds were not finished until well into the 1700s. (The conspicuous belfry was not added until 1759.) Some of the greatest names in Neapolitan architecture and sculpture were involved with the design, construction, and ornamentation of the church over many decades. These include Francesco Picchiati (the royal architect and original designer of the great column at Piazza San Domenico Maggiore), Giuseppe Sanmartino (sculptor of the Veiled Christ), and Cosimo Fanzago (whose works in Naples are almost without number).  San Francesco delle Monache
is another of the small churches of Naples that is now closed and that
attracts little or no attention from passers-by. It is on via Santa
Chiara directly across from the side entrance of the church and
monastic complex of that name and is dwarfed by the presence of the
larger church. Construction of San
Francesco delle Monache was started in 1325 under Robert of Anjou as a temporary residence for the
sisters [monache] of the Order
of St. Clare while construction on the nearby convent of Santa Chiara proceeded.
Religious tradition links the
building of San Francesco delle
Monache to a donation by a nun from Assisi of a life-size "true
portrait" of St. Francis of Assisi. The church that one sees today was
dedicated as a separate church in 1646 and underwent restoration in
1750 at which time the façade of wrought-iron and "piperno" lava
stone was put in place. The entrance thus resembles a transenna, i.e. the
open-work screen of stone or metal normally enclosing a shrine within a church and is unusual in Neapolitan religious
architecture. The church was closed in 1805 when
religious orders were
closed under the French rule of Naples.
It became a
military barracks, then a girls’ school. The entrance is only to the
church, itself, which was much smaller, of course, than
the
original complex of church plus convent; the entire structure extended
north to
the corner of what is now via Benedetto Croce. That part of the
original San Francesco delle Monache
is now separately known as Palazzo
Mazziotti.The church/convent is of some historical interest. Benedetto Croce recalled that “it was one of the major focal points of attempted religious reform in Naples and in all of Italy.” This is in reference to the presence in the convent for 30 years of Giulia Gonzaga (1513-1566). She moved to Naples in 1535 and became a friend and disciple of Juan de Valdez, the “Italian Martin Luther,” who was active in Naples at the time. After Valdez’ death in 1541, Giula Gonzaga inherited his papers and provided for their further dissemination. Her “heretical” activities brought her to the attention of the Inquisition; nothing came of that, however, due to the timely intervention of her powerful Gonzaga cousins.  The Church of Santa Maria del Soccorso
[Succour or Eternal Help] all’Arenella
is at the beginning of what is now called the “high Vomero” (although
Arenella was traditionally a separate village). A plaque outside the
church lists the first priest to minister to the parish as one “Giacomo
Francesco Conte, 1599.” The church originally had an adjacent
monastery, long since converted to secular use. There is little left of
the original church on the outside; the façade is a result of
restoration done since the late 1700s and as late as 1960. The church
is near the birthplace of Arenella’s “favorite son,” the poet and
painter, Salvator Rosa.  Purgatorio ad Arco. The complete name
of this church is Santa Maria delle
Anime del Purgatorio [of the Souls in Purgatory] ad Arco. Casual passers-by along
via dei Tribunali are likely not even to notice it except as just
another small non-descript church in the heart of the historic center
of Naples. It does catch the eye, however, for the presence of the
remarkable display of skulls engraved into the facade—these are the
so-called memento mori.
(Facade detail, photo below. Other examples are here and here.)The church was built in 1616 to the plans of Giovanni Cola di Franco and Giovan Giacomo Di Conforto at the behest of various families of the Neapolitan nobility seeking a place for their burial crypts. The portal and entrance are the work of sculptor, Giuseppe de Marino. The inside presents a single nave with a reduced transept and lateral chapels. The interior contains art work by prominent Neapolitan artists of the time such as Andrea Vaccaro and Luca Giordano.  The underground
chamber—called a “hypogeum”—is particularly interesting
and presents an almost pagan-like array of symbols at certain points.
As the name of the church indicates, the church was dedicated to the
souls in
Purgatory, and there were times when 150 masses a day(!) were
celebrated in the church.to main index to: Miscellaneous churches (1) (2) (3) (4) (6) |
