contact: Jeff Matthews

These four items appeared separately in the original version of the Around Naples Encyclopedia on the dates indicated. They have been consolidated onto a single page here.

(1) directly below      (2) Camaldoli       (3) S. Maria la Nova        (4) Cilento

 

Oct. 2002

1. I see that the university my wife graduated from here in Naples has started a new degree program in art restoration. That's a good idea in a city with as much art and history as Naples has. The newspapers never tire of reporting how this monument is falling apart or that building is crumbling, and you do notice the small run-down churches, some closed for many years. Yet, much of the time, the city does a good job of using the past. I am referring to the great number of the city's public buildings, universities, hospitals—and even police stations—that are in well-restored monasteries.

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Obviously, the Protestant Reformation in the early 1500s and the religious slaughter dryly known as the Thirty Years War (1618-48) changed the Roman Catholic monastic tradition that had flourished in Europe since its beginnings under St. Benedict at Monte Cassino in the sixth century. In the 1500s and 1600s thousands of Catholic churches and monasteries were destroyed, put out of business, or converted to Protestantism in England and Central Europe. Those events, however, left the heartland of the Roman Catholic faith, Italy, largely untouched. The Vatican States were left intact and the vast Kingdom of Naples, half of the Italian peninsula, survived the religious strife that had wracked northern Europe. Thus, in the city of Naples in the year 1700, out of a total population of 300,000, fully one-tenth of that number—one out of every ten Neapolitans!—was either a priest, a monk, or a nun living and working in the churches and adjacent monasteries of Naples.

That did not change significantly until the French took over the Kingdom in 1806. The anti-clericalism of the French Revolution closed most monasteries in parts of Europe that were under French control between 1795 and 1814; that included the monasteries in Naples, which were closed by Murat's decree of 1812. Monasteries in Naples never recovered from that, even after the restoration of the old social order by the Congress of Vienna in 1815. Later, the second great "suppression" of monasteries in Italy occurred in 1864, after the unification of Italy. Thus, in Naples, though there are still some true working monasteries left, such as Santa Chiara, San Gregorio Armeno, and Camaldoli, most of the grand old monasteries now serve other purposes, and it is interesting to look at a few of these.

The City Hall of Naples is the ex-monastery of the adjacent church of San Giacomo [St. James] degli Spagnoli. It was built in the mid-1500s and was vast. An inner passage connected the front of the complex to via Toledo, the main road running behind it. That passage was closed as a result of the construction of the new Bank of Naples in 1939. (The City Hall is seen at left-center, at the top of the square, in the photo of Piazza Municipio.) One of the two structures on the hill above Naples is another ex-monastery, the Museum of San Martino. The photo at the top of this entry shows the courtyard of the monastery of S. Maria La Nova. Administrative offices for the city now occupy the premises. (The church, itself, is still a church and is the subject of item #3, below.)



Various departments of the University of Naples have taken over a number of former religious facilities. The Medical School sits on the height at the old northwest corner of the city, above today's Archaeological Museum and Piazza Cavour. That university department has incorporated a number of smaller churches and cloisters that themselves were on the sites of ancient Greek buildings. Also, the recently restored Cloister of Saints Marcellino and Festo now houses the Paleontology Department (click here). The university library, itself, is behind the modern university building and is on the premises of the old Chiostro (Cloister) del Salvatore, an immense structure built in the 1570s that runs all the way up the hill behind the university almost to Piazza San Domenico Maggiore. It is still a tourist attraction because of its so-called "courtyard of statues", a display of busts of illustrious persons such as Bruno, Vico, and Aquinas.

The Architecture Department of the University of Naples is currently (2002) in the process of expanding to the premises of the old monastery of the Church of the Spirito Santo (photos, left & above, right). The entire complex was, indeed, vast. It was built in the mid-1500s and the historical marker near the entrance (photo insert) on via Toledo marks it as a "Conservatory" for the poor, reminding us of the original meaning of that word—a place to help the poor and, in many cases, "conserve" orphaned and abandoned children. (The extended meaning of "music school" is, apparently, a Neapolitan coinage. (Click on the 'Music Conservatory' link, below.)


The massive building that now houses the State Archives was originally the Benedictine monastery of Saints Severino and Sossio (photo, right) and is in the heart of the old city, near the intersection of Via dei Librai ("Spaccanapoli")  and Via Duomo. The monastery was one of the largest in the city and also one of the oldest, dating back to the 10th century. It was also known as the "cloister of the plane tree" as legend has it that the original building was erected in a grove of trees of that species (platanus), a specimen of which had been given to St. Benedict, himself. (See this separate link, as well.) The history of the first few centuries of the monastery at different premises (the so-called Lucullan Monastery from the fifth century) remains obscure; true enlargement of the premises started in the 1400s. Within the modern building are to be found works of art depicting the history of the Benedictine order.

Also, the Music Conservatory, the military barracks at Monteoliveto, the School for Architectural Restoration, and the Monastery of Piedigrotta are other examples of religious institutions converted to other use, mostly in the last 100 years. The list is, indeed, long. Perhaps we do well to look at the gradual conversion of monasteries to other uses not so much as the result of forced closures, although that, too, did happen. It is also a sign of the changing times. "Personal" monasticism—that is, individuals going on religious retreats once in a while to get away from it all—has become somewhat fashionable recently, but there is no doubt that large, full-time monastic orders are an anachronism, witness the long decline in those willing to enter upon religious callings such as the priesthood.

Very practical matters, as well, play a part—modern urbanization, for example. Some of the monasteries built in the 1500s in Naples were, at the time, on the outskirts of the city. The church of the Spirito Santo, mentioned above, was outside the city wall and at the foot of a bucolic hillside. Today, it is in downtown Naples. Even more dramatic is an institution such as the Cloister of Suor Orsola, a convent built in the mid-1600s halfway up the hill to San Martino at the top. When Suor Orsola was built, there was scarcely a trail, much less a road on the hillside. It was in the country. That section of Naples was opened to urbanization by the construction in the mid-1800s of what has become one of the main thoroughfares of the city, Corso Vittorio Emanuele. After 1901, the old convent functioned as a women's college and [update: 2010] recently has become part of the Naples university system, with both male and female students.

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4. Cilento, National Park; monasteries

Naples is the name of the city as well as of the larger administrative unit—the province—of which it is the capital. The province is, in turn, part of the yet larger unit—the region—of Campania. The province of Naples is not the largest in area in the Campania region, however. That distinction goes to the neighboring province of Salerno to the south. 

The province of Salerno occupies about 3,000 square miles. About one-third of that area has been given over since 1991 to the Cilento and Vallo di Diano National Park, an area of great natural beauty and extreme historic interest. The park is almost all mountains and starts just below Battipaglia, running down to Sapri on the coast at the end of the Campania region. The bulk of the park occupies the rugged terrain called "Cilento," a bulge on the coast that accommodates a section of the Apennine mountain range that has wandered over from the main line to drop off into the Tyrrhenian Sea. 

That spur of coast separates the Gulf of Salerno to the north from the Gulf of Policastro in the south. Although the mountains are not high by the absolute standards of the Alps  (Monte Cervati at 1900 meters—5700 feet—is the highest summit in the Cilento), the relative height is impressive, especially near the coast, where the immediate change in altitude is from sea-level to the 1200 meters (3600 feet) of Monte Bulgheria, a mountain that rises immediately from the coast above and behind the town of Scario.

It is this section of the Cilento that provides some fascinating glimpses into the history of Christianity. If you stand in the little harbor of Scario, you look up at Monte Bulgheria (photo, right)—an archaic Italian spelling for "Bulgaria"—Bulgarian Mountain. It is in the middle of southern Italy but is so-called because the area was settled by refugee monks from the east over 1000 years ago. The great Iconoclast controversies of the 8th and 9th centuries drove a number of monks to escape the severe persecutions of Constantinople (indeed, the most severe of the "icon smashers" aimed to destroy monasticism, itself). The monasteries founded in the immediate area of Monte Bulgheria are Santa Maria di Pattano, San Giovanni Battista, San Marcurio di Roccagloriosa, Santa Maria di Centola, San Nazario di Cuccaro, Santa Maria di Grottaferrata in Rofrano, Santa Cecilia di Eremiti, San Cono di Camerota and San Pietro di Licusati. All of them were founded between 750 and 950 a.d. 

The southern Italian peninsula of the 700s and 800s was not a bad place for people looking to be left alone. There were long periods when sections of the south were under only the nominal control of a central authority. The Lombards had invaded Italy late in the late 500s. In 800, they were replaced by Charlemagne, the first Holy Roman Emperor, but even that affected mostly central and northern Italy. In the 800s and 900s the south stayed Lombard. First, it was the large Duchy of Benevento; then, that splintered through civil war into smaller units, one of which was the Duchy of Salerno. All of this was then gobbled up in the 1000s by the Normans. Important for this brief discussion is that Lombards, Salernitans, Normans— whatever—were all devout followers of the western church. Yet, followers of the eastern Greek church were, to my knowledge, pretty much left alone to worship as they pleased, even after the schismatic movements from Constantinople, first by Photius in 867, and, finally, the schism in 1054 that officially separated Christianity into east and west. There was not then —nor has there ever been in southern Italy— any particular persecution of the Greek Orthodox religion by Roman Catholics. It is true, however, that, little by little over the centuries, these eastern religious orders in southern Italy became westernized and in many cases were simply absorbed into the mainstream of the western monastic tradition.

[related articles: The Abbey of Santa Maria di Pattano - La "Cattolica" in Stilo & Greek churches in Calabria -
                     The Laurito Frescoes - Grottaferrata, a Greek Church in Italy -

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