t Mimmo Paladino’s Cavallo, at MADRE
t Mimmo Paladino’s Cavallo, at MADRE
Opened in 2005, the Museo d’Arte Contemporanea Donna Regina Napoli (MADRE) is located in the Palazzo Donnaregina, from which it gets its name. The museum houses a remarkable collection by well-known artists, such as Andy Warhol, Robert Rauschenberg, Mimmo Paladino, Claes Oldenburg, Robert Mapplethorpe and Roy Lichtenstein among others. On the first floor is a library and a children’s area, while the third floor is used for temporary exhibitions. The museum often hosts special events such as cinema screenings, concerts and theatrical performances. The church of Santa Maria Donnaregina, at the back of the museum, provides additional exhibition space in a beautiful setting.
Begun in 1165 by Norman King William I and completed by Frederick II, Castel Capuano was a royal palace until 1540, when Don Pedro de Toledo turned it into law courts, a function it maintains to the present day.
Nearby, between the Aragonese towers of the Capua Gate and facing a market, is a rare sculpture in the Florentine-Renaissance style. Created by Giuliano da Maiano (and finished in 1490 by Luca Fancelli) as a defensive gate, Porta Capuana is perhaps Italy’s finest Renaissance gateway.
Built between 1294 and 1323, the Cattedrale di Santa Maria Assunta, or Duomo, lies behind a mostly 19th-century façade. The nave is lined with ancient columns, and there is an array of monuments to past rulers, along with paintings by Lanfranco and Domenichino.
The Duomo houses the relics of San Gennaro, Naples’ patron saint (martyred AD 305). The Cappella San Gennaro, erected in the 1600s, holds phials of his congealed blood, which miraculously liquefies three times a year (the Saturday before the first Sunday in May, 19 September and 16 December). The Cappella Carafa, a Renaissance masterpiece built from 1497 to 1506, contains the saint’s tomb.
Accessible from the Duomo’s north aisle is the Cappella di Santa Restituta, founded in the 4th century on the site of a former Temple of Apollo, and rebuilt in the 1300s. It has ceiling paintings by Luca Giordano (1632–1705) and a 5th-century baptistry. The nearby Museo del Tesoro di San Gennaro exhibits a range of gold, silverware, jewels, statues and art.
Experience Naples
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EAT Here are some of the best pizzerias in Naples. Da Michele This pizzeria serves only Margherita and Marinara varieties. E2 ⌂ Via Cesare Sersale 1 ∑ damichele.net ¡¡¡ Sorbillo The pizza here is well worth queueing up for. C2 ⌂ Via dei Tribunali 32 ∑ sorbillo.it ¡¡¡ Concettina ai Tre Santi A fourth-generation pizzaiolo. C1 ⌂ Via Arena alla Sanità 7 Bis ∑ pizzeriaoliva.it ¡¡¡ |
Pio Monte is one of the most important charitable institutions in Naples. It was founded in 1601 to aid the poor and ill, and to free the Christian slaves in the Ottoman Empire. After passing through the five-arch loggia (where pilgrims could shelter), you enter the octagonal church. The eye is immediately drawn to the extraordinary altarpiece, Caravaggio’s Seven Acts of Mercy (1607). The art gallery has paintings by Luca Giordano and Mattia Preti. Access to the church is free, but there is an entry fee for the art gallery.
t Via Nilo, just round the corner from Cappella Sansevero
This tiny 16th-century chapel is the burial sepulchre of the Princes of Sangro di Sansevero. Featuring both Christian and Masonic symbolism, it has an unusual character.
The chapel is filled with remarkable 18th-century sculpture, including The Resurrection of the Prince, by an unknown artist, and Giuseppe Sammartino’s Veiled Christ, an alabaster figure beneath a marble veil.
Prince Raimondo, an 18th-century alchemist, is associated with the chapel. He performed gruesome experiments on human bodies, for which he was excommunicated. The results of some of his experiments can be seen in the crypt.
Experience Naples
Deeply engrained in Naples’ gastronomic identity, pizza first emerged in southern Italy in the late 1700s, quickly becoming a working-class staple. In 1889, when touring the kingdom, Queen Margherita of Savoy developed a taste for this peasant delicacy. After she summoned chef Raffaele Esposito to the royal-palace ovens, pizza Margherita was born. In order to raise awareness of pizza-making’s endangered status, in 2017 the culinary art was added to UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity list.
t Ceiling of San Lorenzo Maggiore
This Franciscan church is mainly 14th-century (with an 18th-century façade) and was built during the reign of Robert the Wise of Anjou. The storyteller Giovanni Boccaccio (1313–75) reputedly based the character Fiammetta on King Robert’s daughter Maria, whom he saw here on Easter Eve in 1334. For Naples, San Lorenzo Maggiore is a rare Gothic edifice. Its nave and the apse ambulatory have a magnificent period simplicity. The church houses medieval tombs that include the Gothic tomb of Catherine of Austria, who died in 1323, by a pupil of Giovanni Pisano. Excavations in the monastic cloister, where the lyric poet and scholar Petrarch once stayed, have revealed the remains of a Roman basilica. There are also important Greek and medieval excavations, for which there is an admission fee.
t The cloister of San Gregorio Armeno, in an idyllic garden setting
Benedictine nuns still preside over this church. The attached convent earned a reputation for luxury since the nuns, traditionally from noble families, were accustomed to lavish living. The Baroque interior of the church sports frescoes by Luca Giordano. There is a lovely fountain in the cloister with a statue of Christ and the Samaritan.
The church is located in a street known to locals as “Christmas Alley” because it is lined with workshops manufacturing and selling Nativity figures (presepi).
This 14th-century church holds a fine Renaissance work: the Tomb of Cardinal Rinaldo Brancaccio. Designed by Michelozzo, it was sculpted in Pisa, then shipped to Naples upon completion in 1428. Donatello reputedly carved the right-hand angel drawing back the curtain, the shallow-relief Assumption and the cardinal’s head. From the church you can visit the courtyard of Palazzo Brancaccio, home to Naples’ first public library (1690).
t Sculpture in the church of San Lorenzo Maggiore
In 1283 Charles I of Anjou ordered the construction of a new church and monastery for the Dominican order. The Gothic three-nave building was built onto the pre-existing church of Sant’Arcangelo a Morfisa, which was the original seat of Naples’ University of Theology, headed by St Thomas Aquinas. A relic of the saint’s arm is said to be kept inside the monastery. In 1850–53 Federico Travaglini rebuilt the interior in Neo-Gothic style. The sacristy houses 42 coffins arranged along the balcony. Some contain the corpses of the Aragonese kings, including Alphonse and Ferdinand I.
Experience Naples
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STAY Constantinpoli 104 Impeccably appointed boutique hotel. E5 ⌂ Via S Maria di Costantinopoli 104 ∑ costantinopoli104.it ¡¡¡ Hotel Romeo Rooms in the old town. C4 ⌂ Via C Colombo 45 ∑ romeohotel.it ¡¡¡ Decumani Tasteful furnishings in a 20th-century palazzo. D2 ⌂ Via del Grande Archivio 8 ∑ decumani.com ¡¡¡ |
This 14th-century church was bombed in World War II, but a reconstruction uncovered the original Provençal-Gothic structure. The tombs of the Angevin monarchs are housed here. The tomb of Robert the Wise (died 1343) is by Giovanni and Pacio Bertini; that of his son, Charles of Calabria (died 1328), is by Tino da Camaino; and the tomb of Charles’ wife, Mary of Valois (died 1331), is by da Camaino and his followers. Adjacent is a convent with a cloister designed by Vaccaro (1742). There is also a museum with ornaments and sculptures from Santa Chiara, as well as a Roman bathhouse (AD 1).
§ 081 797 12 24 or 081 551 66 73 # 9:30am–5:30pm Mon–Sat, 10am–2:30pm Sun & public hols
This 16th-century Jesuit church was constructed by Valeriano (and later Fanzago and Fuga) from the Severini palace (15th century), of which only a façade survives. The interior decoration (1600s) is in accordance with the needs of the Jesuits, who used dramatic and emotional appeal to draw the faithful. It is resplendent with coloured marble and paintings, including works by Ribera and Solimena, such as the latter’s Expulsion of Heliodorus from the Temple fresco. In 1688 an earthquake destroyed the dome – the present one is 18th century.
Also known as Santa Maria di Monteoliveto, this church – the favourite of the Aragonese kings – was built in 1411 and restored after World War II. It is a repository of Renaissance art. Entering, past the tomb (1627) of Domenico Fontana (who completed the dome of St Peter’s in Rome after Michelangelo’s death), the richness of the interior unfolds.
The Cappella Mastrogiudice contains an Annunciation panel by Florentine sculptor Benedetto da Maiano (1489). In the Cappella Piccolomini is Antonio Rossellino’s monument (c.1475) to Maria d’Aragona (completed by da Maiano). The Cappella del Santo Sepolcro houses a Pietà by Guido Mazzoni (1492). Its eight terracotta figures are considered life-size portraits of the artist’s contemporaries. The old Sacristy, frescoed by Vasari (1544), has inlaid stalls by Giovanni da Verona (1510).
t Castel Nuovo, the medieval seat of Naples’ kings
Also known as the Maschio Angioino, this Angevin fortress was built for Charles of Anjou in 1279–82 and given the nuovo (“new”) part of its name to distinguish it from two earlier castles. Despite its origins, apart from the squat towers and the Cappella Palatina (which features Francesco Laurana’s Madonna of 1474 above the portal), most of the structure is Aragonese.
The castle was the main royal residence. In the Sala dei Baroni, Ferdinand I of Aragon brutally suppressed the ringleaders of the Barons’ revolt of 1486. The Aragonese were capable of violence, but they were also patrons of the arts.
The triumphal arch of the castle’s entrance (begun 1454) is theirs. Commemorating Alfonso of Aragon’s entry to Naples in 1443, this ingenious application of the ancient triumphal arch design was worked on, in part, by Laurana. The original bronze doors by Guillaume le Moine (1468) are in the Palazzo Reale. Part of the castle houses the Museo Civico.
" § 081 795 77 22 # 9am–6pm Mon–Sat
Experience Naples
Arenile di Bagnoli
E5 ⌂ Via Coroglio 14b ∑ areniledibagnoli.it
This lively spot is a local and international music mecca. There’s a stage along the sea in summer.
Cammarota Spritz
B4 ⌂ Vico Lungo Teatro Nuovo 31 § 320 277 5687
With a hip, grungy vibe, this place serves Aperol in plastic cups for €1.
Enoteca Belledonne
A5 ⌂ Vico Belledonne a Chiaia 18 ∑ enotecabelledonne.it
This bottle-lined wine bar is always hopping.
Standing proudly high above Santa Lucia, the Baroque Certosa di San Martino, founded in the 1300s as a Carthusian monastery, offers great views out across the Bay of Naples. It contains a museum housing a variety of presepi, Christmas cribs of Neapolitan tradition, some featuring hundreds of figures. The cloister was completed in 1623–9 by Cosimo Fanzago (the creator of Neapolitan Baroque) to the 16th-century designs of Dosio. The church and choir are other examples of his virtuosity.Next to the Certosa is Castel Sant’Elmo, built from 1329–43 and rebuilt in the 1500s, from where there are further stunning views.
# 8:30am–5pm daily
t The majestic arcades of Galleria Umberto I, with its handsome glass roof
Once a focus for fashionable Neapolitans, the handsome arcades of the Galleria Umberto I were built in 1887 and rebuilt after World War II. They face Italy’s largest and oldest opera house: the Teatro San Carlo, first built for Charles of Bourbon in 1737.
" ' # Jan–Jul ∑ teatrosancarlo.it
t Statue of Frederick II in the Palazzo Reale
Begun by Domenico Fontana in 1600, and later expanded, Naples’ royal palace is a handsome edifice filled with furniture, tapestries, paintings and porcelain. The small private Teatro di Corte (1768) was built by Ferdinando Fuga. The building houses the Biblioteca Nazionale (library). The exterior has been partly restored and Piazza del Plebiscito has been cleaned up. The great colonnades sweep towards 19th-century San Francesco di Paola, modelled on Rome’s Pantheon.
§ 081 781 92 31 # 8am–6:45pm Mon–Fri, 9am–1:45pm Sat; bring ID
Begun in 1738 by the Bourbon king Charles III as a hunting lodge, the Palazzo Reale di Capodimonte houses this museum and its magnificent collections of Italian paintings. Included are works by Titian, Botticelli, Raphael and Perugino, much of it originating in the Farnese family collections. There is also a gallery of 19th-century art, largely from southern Italy.
Insider Tip
For great street food, head to Spaccanapoli – a street crisscrossing the old centre. Try a pizza a portafoglio (folded pizza) and deep-fried palle ‘e riso (balls of rice). Don’t miss baba (rum-soaked dough) at Naples’ oldest patisserie, Scaturchio.
These catacombs – the original burial place of San Gennaro – are near the church of San Gennaro in Moenia. The small church was founded in the 8th century, and is adjoined by a 17th-century workhouse. Two tiers of catacombs dating from the 2nd century penetrate the tufa, and there are mosaics and early Christian frescoes. Further along the street, the Catacombs of San Gaudioso honour the 5th-century saint who founded a monastery on the spot. Above is the 17th-century church of Santa Maria della Sanità.
Begun in 1154, the Castel dell'Ovo is the oldest castle in Naples. It is set on a small island facing, and joining, the Santa Lucia district – once the site of the city’s shellfish market. A royal residence under the Normans and Hohenstaufen, today it belongs to the army. It is now used for cultural events, and there are great views from the ramparts.
Beneath its ramparts, tiny Porta Santa Lucia is filled with seafood restaurants. The Via Partenope, running past it, makes a really lovely promenade.