Miscellaneous Churches
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1.
San Pietro Martire.
The main body of this ex-monastery now houses departments
of the Federico II University of
Naples. The origins of San Pietro Martire go
back to the Angevin dynasty in
Naples when Charles II of Anjou authorized the
construction of a new Dominican basilica. Construction was
begun in 1294. (At the time, the area was already a
maze of tight alleyways close to the port; the layout of
the area that one sees today was greatly changed by the
urban rebuilding, the Risanamento,
of the late 1800s.)Originally the premises were meant to house only 13 monks, but, even then, building went forward only in spurts as priorities changed under succeeding monarchs. The Renaissance courtyard is the result of the first real expansion in the early 1500s. In the 1630s, the main belfry was added, the work of F.A. Picchiati. Further construction and expansion occurred in the 1750s. The monastery was closed under the French rule of Murat in the early 1800s and then definitively closed in 1864. The complex was badly damaged in WW II bombings (it is very near the port); it was entirely restored in 1979. The old "church part" of the complex is a university chapel today and is directly across from the main building of the university on Corso Umberto I. (update: As of January 2010, the church, itself, is closed.)
2.
Our Lady of Mercy. (A.k.a. the Church of Sant'Orsola.)
The presence of the Spanish Mercedarian order is part of
the consolidation of the Spanish monarchy in the vice-realm of Naples in the
1500s. This church/monastery is at the western end of
via Chiaia (now a pedestrian thoroughfare), a road that,
indeed, was once the main way to get from the area
around the Royal palace to the newer Spanish expansions
to the west along the sea front. (Actually, it still is the easiest way if you
don't mind a short walk.) The church is on the site of
an earlier Chapel of St. Orsola from the 1400s;
construction to incorporate that chapel into the newer
church started in the late 1500s. The church is not
particularly conspicuous from the front as it is abutted
on both sides by other buildings. Like many
church/monasteries in Naples, it was closed under the
French in the early 1800s, but later reopened. It
underwent extensive restoration in the 1850s. Ten years
later, the unification of Italy forced the closure of
virtually all monasteries in Italy. In 1874, the former
monastic premises were sold and eventually converted
into the Sannazzaro Theater, still operating. The
adjacent church stayed a church and remains essentially
what one sees today.
3. Santa Maria delle Grazie is below the Corso Vittorio
Emanuele at a small square called Piazza Mondragone, a
name historically applied to the entire premises that
contain the small church: il Retiro di Mondragone, the
Mondragone Retreat. The entire complex was originally a
"conservatory", in the early non-musical use of the word
to mean a shelter, a place where widows and destitute
women might be cared for. The complex was founded in
1653 by Elena Aldobrandini, countess of Mondragone.
Construction of the church, itself, was somewhat later
than the shelter; the church is from 1715. Urbanization
and subdivision of the area has reduced Santa Maria
della Grazie to a rather sorry state. For a long time,
it was simply closed but has recently been at least
partially restored. It is considered an outstanding
example of late Baroque art and architecture in Naples.
4.
Santa Maria Assunta di
Bellavista. It is difficult to say which church
in Naples has the best view of the bay. This one has to be
high on anyone's list. It is way out of town at Piazza San Luigi, on
the long main road, via Posillipo, that winds west away
from Mergellina and up the
hill towards Cape Posillipo. (The photo, right, was taken
from the road that runs down to the sea, the cape and villa Volpicelli.) From the
long monastery-like façade, one is tempted to compare this
church to the old Spanish buildings in downtown
Naples—maybe spectacularly restored. Not so; in fact, from
the side or above, you see that the building is not a
gigantic monastic block, but simply a very long façade
fronting a relatively shallow building. It was built in
only 4 years, beginning in 1860 on land granted by Francis II (the last king of
Naples) to two sisters of the Capece Minutolo family. The
church, itself, is only the central portion of the
building. The two wings were meant to house, respectively,
a school and shelter for the poor on one side and
dwellings on the other. The clean neo-Gothic façade, thus,
is not a restoration, but the original design.5.
Santa
Maria della Pazienza is commonly called the
"Cesarea", after Annibale Cesareo, the royal secretary
responsible in 1602 for the construction of what was then
a church plus major hospital. It is located about halfway
up the Vomero hill above the archaeological museum and
accessible from below by the main road up, via Salvator
Rosa. It is today just above the intersection of that
street and Corso Vittorio Emanuele (a major east-west road
which did not exist until the mid-1800s). The "Cesarea"
was, at the time it was built, well outside of town.
Originally, the church and hospital were under the direct
administration of the Holy See. The hospital was closed in
the late 1800s under a general move towards secularization
of health-care facilities in Naples, and the
administration of the church was transferred to the
archbishopric of Naples.
6.
Santa
Maria del Parto (Birth) overlooks the small port
of Mergellina and is quite
easy to "underlook" if you are busy with the daily
portside routine. Yet, the church is very old and very
historic. It was founded by the great Neapolitan poet Iaccopo Sannazzaro on land he
obtained in 1497 from Frederick II of Aragon. The king
also gave Sannazzaro a stipend; thus, the poet spent the
last years of his life working on his church and his poem,
De partu Virginis, at the same time.Although the entire complex has been divided and subdivided over the years, it is evident that the whole affair was once a single unit and was much bigger than the quaint church on top (photo). The original plans called for a two-level complex—the church that you see today on top and another church dug in the tufaceous cliff face below at a point where there was a cave that contained a well-known wooden presepe (manger scene) by Giovanni da Nola. The premises also included a monastery, using part of an earlier structure that had been on the site from the time of the Angevin dynasty. The first church was finished in good order, but the second part had some problems in the early 1500s due to a plague epidemic that forced Sannazzaro to leave Naples. Also, the French and Spanish were still fighting for control of the area; thus, at one point in the 1520s, the new church was converted into a military fortification. Before his death, Sannazzaro managed to get the property back, and heirs finished the project. Later, the monastery part was closed by the French in the early 1800s and, for a while, those premises became the private property of the Neapolitan opera impresario, Domenico Barbaia.
7.
The church of Santa Teresa
degli Scalzi (aka Santa Teresa al Museo or Madre
di Dio) is the eponym for the street on which it is
located, just around the corner to the north of the National Archaeological Museum.
The broad street was the new thoroughfare built by the
French under Murat in the early
1800s to connect the historic center of the city with the
royal palace of Capodimonte.
In spite of the historical importance of the church and
the great number of art works contained on the premises,
it is almost never open to be visited. The interior of the
church is a treasure trove, with works by painters Paolo de Matteis and Battistello Caracciolo
and the sculptor Domenico Antonio
Vaccaro, among many others. Also, the church holds a
painting of Holy Roman Emperor Charles VII. It is by Giacomo Colombo and is
from 1715, the era of the brief Austrian Hapsburg vice-realm in Naples.
The chapel of St. Teresa within the church was designed by
Cosimo Fanzago and is considered
relevant in the history of Neapolitan Baroque art.S.M. degli Scalzi was built between 1604 and 1612 and was the first church and monastery of the Discalced ("barefoot") Carmelite Order in Naples. The founders were Carmelite monks from Spain, followers of St. Teresa of Ávila. The façade of S.M. degli Scalzi contains a stucco statue of St. Teresa and one of St. John of the Cross; the façade is from 1652 and is the work of Fanzago. [There is a seperate entry on the Ancient (Calced) Carmelite Order.] When religious orders were closed in 1808, some of the furnishings within the church were moved elsewhere to conserve them as cultural artifacts. In this case, the original altar, built by the Neapolitan sculptor, Dionisio Lazzari (1617-89), was moved to the royal palace, where it resides today. The double stairway is the result of later construction in the 1830s after the church was reopened. The ex-monastic premises today house an Industry and Crafts Institute for the Blind.
8.
San
Carlo all' Arena. This church with the
strange name is located on the north side of via Foria,
just east of Piazza Cavour, and is relatively late in
the history of Neapolitan church building. The general
layout of the building is attributed to the Dominican
priest/architect Fra
Nuvolo (Vincenzo
de Nuvola, 1570-1643), but the church was not
inaugurated until 1700 with work on the facade
continuing as late as 1756. This is actually a rebuilt
version of another church of the same name somewhat to
the west of the present site; that church was opened in
1602 and is no longer standing. The name, itself,
"Arena" means "sand" and refers to the former presence
of a rain-fed river that ran along what is now via
Foria, all presence of which has now vanished; the last
witness to that presence, the nearby bridge of Sant'Antonio abate,
was demolished in 1868. The church was home to the
Cistercian order, which, however, had to abandon the
premises in 1792 to make room for a shelter ("conservatorio"), a
plan that never came to fruition. With the coming of the
anti-clericalism of the short-lived Neapolitan Republic of 1799
and then of the longer-lived French rule under Murat at the beginning of the
1800s, the premises were used as a store-house; many of
the art works contained in the church and monastery were
lost. Thanks to the work of the Cistercian order during
the cholera outbreak of 1836, they were again given the
property. After the unification of Italy, the order was
suppressed. The ex-monastic premises are today occupied
by public buildings. The church today still contains
significant art work and sculpture.9.
From its
location, size and appearance, the church of Saints John and Theresa
might seem much older than it is—perhaps a sister
to one of those many 16th -and-17th-century Spanish churches
just below it in the Chiaia section of town, just above the
western end of the Villa Comunale.
Actually, it is more recent and consequently enjoyed a much
shorter life as the church/convent it was intended to be.
There had been an earlier royal villa of sorts on the
property when it was acquired by members of the Discalced
Carmelite order in 1747. Ten years later, a central church
was added (photo) at the behest of the monarch, Charles III. Tradition likes to
attribute the conversion and subsequent building on the
premises to architect Angelo
Carasale, who had just completed the San Carlo Theater; however, most
sources now claim that the architect is unknown but, whoever
he was, he owed a lot to Antonio
Domenico Vaccaro.The church is on the steep street, Arco Mirelli, about halfway up between piazza della Repubblica at sea-level and the long east-west road, Corso Vittorio Emanuele. If you step back from the front of the building and can keep from rolling down the hill, you will see just how large it is. In that respect, it has something in common with the earlier Spanish monasteries and convents. All convents and monasteries were closed by the French in the early 1800s and again after the unification of Italy in 1861; more recently, the former convent of Saints Giovanni e Teresa was converted to secular use as part of the Loreto Crispi hospital. The interior of the church contains works by sculptor Manuel Pacecho and paintings by Giuseppe Bonito (1707-89) and Francesco de Mura (1696-1782). Bonito and de Mura were both students of Solimena, and, interestingly, Bonito is better known for his popular renditions of Neapolitan life than for religious works.
10.
The
church of Santa Maria
dell’Aiuto [Saint
Mary of Eternal Help, or of Succour] is on the
small east-west street of that name about 150 yards into
the old city across the street (via Monteoliveto) from the
east side of the main post office. It is just past the
better-known church of Santa
Maria la Nova.
The architect was Dionisio Lazzari (see #7, above) and, in its newly restored condition (after years of being closed), the church may be appreciated for the absolute gem of the Neapolitan Baroque that it was. The historian Celano (writing when the church was new) recounts what has become folklore surrounding the origins of the church—that two children in 1635 posted their own crude drawing of the Blessed Virgin in a window of a lower floor of what was then the Palazzo Pappacoda (not to be confused with a church of the same name) and collected donations. When they had collected enough, they hired a real artist to do his own rendition on canvas—again to solicit donations. The process gained speed and by the time of the great plague of 1656, a small chapel had been founded and then a church—on the site of the original Pappacoda building—dedicated to Our Lady of Succour. (In an age in which such concrete manifestations of faith were held to be protection from earthquakes, eruptions of Vesuvius and pestilence, not only churches arose, but also the three so-called “plague columns” of Naples).
The church is in the design of a Greek cross—that is, a central nave with a transept of equal length as the nave; it has a central dome. A partial inventory of the art works contained in the church includes:
—three paintings by Gaspare
Traversi dated 1749: The Nativity, The
Annunciation, and the Ascension of
the Virgin;
—the monument tomb of Gennaro Acamparo by Francesco
Pagano from 1738;
—also by Pagano, the angels that support the candelabra
of the main altar;
—the painting of The Virgin of Succour
by Giuseppe Farina;
—The Flight of Joseph by Nicola Malincolico;
—the side ovals of The Archangel Michael
by Giacinto Diano.
The restoration of Santa
Maria dell’Aiuto has been spectacularly successful.
Another such monolith is the telephone exchange about halfway along via Depretis. It gleams and towers over the rest of the neighborhood; indeed, it and the large risanamento building a few yards away could do an excellent car-crusher number on the tiny edifice caught in the middle, the church of San Giacomo degli Italiani. The small church is closed, dilapidated and non-descript—yet, for what it's worth—it managed to survive two great waves of purposeful demolition and construction in the last century and even various random waves of destruction in the aerial bombardments of WW II.
The church was a remake in the 1570s of a nearby church of
the same name that disappeared as part of Spanish
construction in the 16th century. The original church was
from 1328 and was the seat of the Order of the Knights of
St. James. The appellation "degli Italiani" (of
the Italians) may have been to distinguish it from another
church—more familiar to Neapolitans and, indeed, still a
functioning church—San
Giacomo degli Spagnoli (today, simply called
"San Giacomo," right next to City Hall). Or, says another
theory, it was to honor sailors from Pisa ("Italians" as
opposed to "Neapolitans") whose fleet rested in the port
of Naples for a while on the way home from a victory over
the Saracens further south in 1327. The façade of the
present church incorporates the portal from the 1500s as
well as a crest comprised of a shell, sword, and cross,
the symbol of the Order of St. James. The church was left
standing intentionally during the risanamento and
was reconsecrated in 1901. I have been unable to find out
if it served as a church after the giant building was put
up next door. I suspect that it was closed during that
period and simply never
reopened. (add
below, Feb 19, 2018)
The Way (& the Shell) of St. James (start
3 paragraphs up)
As far as "shell,
sword, and cross," the symbol of the Order of St. James
go, I am primarily concerned with the shell and ask you to
examine these two images (left and right) and determine
what graphic detail they have in common. (I just gave you
the answer but pretend I didn't!) Right! The shell, seen
on the right (looking like a real shell) on the facade of
San Giacomo dei Italiani (and many
others elsewhere, especially on the premises of San Giacomo (degli
Spagnoli), adjacent to the city hall) is seen
in stylized form (the "radiating" blue and yellow icon in
the center of the pillar on the left) in this travel photo
(from friend Preston Lamp. He was on the last leg of one
of the most popular pilgrimages in Christendom, the Way
of St. James, the road to the cathedral of St. James
in Santiago de Compostela in northwestern Spain). Rather
than "radiating," however, the lines are really many roads
coming in, leading to one place, Compostela de Santiago.
They represent the grooves on the shells of clams found on
the shores of Gallicia; some form of the shell, real or
stylized, has for centuries been a symbol of the trek.
Today, this
stylized shell (right) is seen along the many roads in
Spain and France that lead to Santiago de Compostela and
is being pushed by the European Union as a symbol of a
united Europe harking back to the first use of "Europe" in
the modern sense (in the 700s) (that is, a geographical
area with generally common cultural features) that define
a post-Roman area in southern, central and northern
Europe, all dating back to the 700s when the
"reconquest of Spain" started and when Charlemagne
declared the Holy Roman Empire; that is, when today's
"Europe" started.
Whether or not the most poetic etymology I know of "Compostela"— "field of stars"— is true, or whether W.B.Yeats had any of this in mind when he wrote, "But one man loved the pilgrim soul in you...and paced among the mountains overhead/ and hid his face amid a crowd of stars"...I'll leave that to you.
my usual thanks to Selene Salvi for her help
If the
church of Santa Maria in
Cosmedin is as old as legend says it is, no
wonder UNESCO is willing to chip in €950,000 to restore it
as a museum. That is, if it was really founded by
Constantin the Great—around the year 300—that would put
the church in the first ranks of paleo-Christian
houses of worship in Naples. At the very least, the church
is at least as old as one of the same name in Rome from
the 500s, and, in any event, has been documented to be one
of the first four parishes in Naples. The unusual name
comes from the Greek adjective cosmedin (from Greek kosmidion), meaning ornate. The church in
Naples held both Greek and Latin rites until around the
year 1200.
S.M. Cosemedin is also called S.M. di Portanova (New Gate) from its location near a medieval city gate of that name. The small square in front of the church is still called Portanova and is about one block in (i.e., to the north) from the modern straight boulevard named Corso Umberto, not far from the main building of the Federico II University.
The structure has been closed since the 1980 earthquake and is in impossibly bad and unsafe condition. Virtually nothing of the artistic interior remains, all having been either stolen/vandalized or removed for safekeeping. The configuration that one sees today is from the late 1600s and early 1700s, concealing the grounds beneath the main body of the church, site of a burial ground and presumably whatever remains of the original paleo-Christian premises. There are upper stories, as well. Through the centuries, various monastic orders found a home in an adjacent monastery, removed during the Risanamento, the urban renewal of the late 1800s. That construction/demolition also removed an ornate Baroque double stair-case at the entrance. I have heard nothing of current plans to start restoration or of the disposition of the monies supposedly allocated by UNESCO.
13.
The Church of S. Maria
della Concordia was built in 1556 to a design by
Father Giuseppe Romano, provincial vicar of the Carmelite
order. The church was built about a third of the way up
the steep slope leading to the San
Martino monastery and the Sant' Elmo fortress. The
church was, thus, well above the new main street, via
Toledo, and was at the high southwest section of the area
still called the "Spanish
quarters", built in the mid-1500s to garrison
Spanish vice-royal troops. In those days, the slopes were
still bucolic and sprinkled with churches and monasteries
at about the level of today's road, Corso Vittorio
Emanuele, which winds along east to west just above the
Concordia and other religious institutions from around the
same period. These include the nearby church of Santa Caterina da Siena and the
Convent of the Sisters of the
Most Holy Trinity (now known as the ex-Military
Hospital).
The Concordia was restored in 1718 by Giovan Battista
Nauclerio, best known in Naples for his work on the church
and monastery of San Domenico
Maggiore; the church was then completely restored in
1858. During the various closures of religious orders in
Naples since Murat, the premises
have also served as a boarding school, a music school, and
even an infamous Debtors' Prison. The most significant
painting on the premises is The Blessed Virgin with St. Michael; it
is either by Giuseppe de
Ribera or the Sicilian painter, Bernardo Azzolino
(1572 - 1645).
Confusing historical
note! The church contains the tomb of one Gaspare
Benemerino. According to one source (de Lellis, below),
Gaspare was due to become the "22nd King of Fez" when he
converted to Christianity, [thus] "...renouncing his
powerful kingdom...in order to gain the eternal kingdom of
Heaven." Since that note appeared in 1654, some sources
have simply referred to Gaspare as the son of the "King of
Fez," and as one who served Phillip III of Spain. This has
led other sources to call Gaspare a son of the ruler of
"The Kingdom of Fez," but Fez and the Kingdom of Fez are
not necessarily the same and, in this case, are probably
not.
First,
the epitaph near Gaspar's tomb in the church simply says
that he was an African king. Assuming the date on the
epitaph (1641) to be the year of his death and the
reference to "Pope Urban VIII" (papal reign 1623-44) to be
accurate, there is some confusion. Although De Lellis
transcribed the Latin epitaph to read that Gaspare served
"Phillip III of Spain," the stone (photo, right) says
"Phillip II" and even that is not clear. It might even be
a "Phillip I" that someone has altered to "Phillip II" by
adding a numeral. (Of course, that wouldn't fix the
chronology, either, but it's as close to 'III' as they
could squeeze in. "C'mon,
who's going to notice. Let's go to lunch." This
is likely to have been Guido & Vinnie's Epitaph and
Pizza Delivery Service. They still exist!)
Second, there was, indeed, an historical state called the Kingdom of Fez with a limited existence, from 1472 to 1554, but that may be irrelevant. What De Lellis meant by "the 22nd king of Fez" was probably that Gaspare was from the city of Fez, a major religious center of Islam since the founding of the city in 789 by the Idrisid dynasty. The city has been called the "Mecca of the West." Rulers of Fez (as well as other parts of Morocco) have been various dynasties called by tribal names such as Idrisid, Almoravid, Marinid, Wattasid, and Saadi. (The Kingdom of Fez is also termed the Wattasid Sultanate.) Thus, de Lellis may have meant that Gaspare was the son of a king in a long, long chain of rulers stretching back to the founding of Fez. In any event, Phillip I (or even Phillip II) on the epitaph stone has to be a mistake, which De Lellis corrected to Phillip III (reigned from 1598 to 1621) in his transcription in order to set the chronology straight. So, Gaspare Benemerino died in 1641 in Naples. He was descended from Moroccan royalty, converted to Christianity and served Phillip III of Spain. I think.
source:
de Lellis, Carlo.
Supplement to "Napoli
Sacra" by Cesare d’Engenio Caracciolo. Naples,
1654.
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