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Thursday, September 15, 2022
Unlike our experiences in Rome a number of churches in Town just never seem to be open and quite a few that are open are no longer active churches; they are museums and places for exhibitions. We tried to see the inside of The Church of Santa Maria Maggiore della Pietransanta but found that they had an exhibition in progress and wouldn’t let us in unless we bought a ticket. No thanks. There’s plenty of other fish in the sea.
Next was Chiesa di Santa Maria della Anime del Purgatorio ad Arco, a church dedicated to souls in purgatory. The interior of the church is rather modest in size but is beautifully decorated in the High Baroque Style. In the lower level you can find a large assortment of skulls of people who were condemned to purgatory. Parishioners are encouraged to adopt these people and pray for them thus hastening their assent into heaven. When the church was originally dedicated in 1638 this was a crucial issue for the Counter-Reformation. Catholic theologians differ on the amount of time a typical soul stays in purgatory. It varies from weeks to thousands of years.
We continued down Via dei Tribunali until we reached Piazza San Gaetano where we found a large sculpture of the saint. We had intended to see Basilica San Paulo Maggiore but found it was closed. In fact, it has been closed every time we’ve seen it in the past few weeks. Naples is said to have over 500 churches. At least half appear to be closed all the time and quite a few seem to need structural renovations. I suppose time, neglect, and earthquakes will do that.
Next door we entered Santuario di San Gaetano da Thiene. It’s a lovely little chapel where both Saint Gaetano, and Sant Cajetan, the patron saint of Argentina, gamblers, and the unemployed, are buried. The walls of the chapels are decorated with beautiful frescos. It’s a nice, quiet, private place to come and pray.
As is our custom whenever we see an open church we poke our heads in and have a look around. You never know what you’ll find. So many churches appear unassuming from the outside and turn out to be magnifico on the inside. We’ve found some interesting artwork in many of these less well known places.
We attempted to go to Cappella Sansevero to see the very famous sculpture called The Veiled Christ by Giuseppe Sanmartino from 1753. What we didn’t realize was that you had to buy tickets to enter the church. There was a very long line to buy tickets and an even longer line of people waiting to get in. We decided to buy tickets online and go back on another day,
Our last planned stop was at The Complesso Monumentale San Lorenzo Maggiore. In 1235 Pope Gregory IX agreed to the construction of this church, the sixth in Naples to be dedicated to San Lorenzo. It was built in the Gothic style and is located at the center of the ancient city of Naples in Pizza San Gaetano. The church originates from the Franciscan Order and was meant to replace the church that was converted to a fortress by Charles I of Anjou (present day Castel Nuovo).
As is typical of Gothic churches this one is very long and has a very high ceiling. Inside the ceiling is supported by a triangular wood structure instead of the more typical vaulted arches. The left transept contains a huge, Baroque style chapel dedicated to the named saint. His body is actually buried in Rome in The Basilica of Saint Lawrence outside the Walls. The chapels are generally decorated in Medieval style. The families that originally sponsored them are clearly labeled. Many elaborate marble tombs can be seen in each.
Along Via dei Tribunali, in the same neighborhood, there is a rather famous pizzeria called Sorbillo. Whenever we’ve passed by there has always been a very long line of people waiting to get in. Since it was still early we figured we’d see if we could get a table. We arrived at 11:25 am and found that the restaurant didn’t open until noon. There were about a dozen people already waiting in line. We took our place at the end and queued into the street. As time went on people queued behind us and to each side of us. This was going to be a NYC style free-for-all to get a table. There was an Italian woman in line behind us that was getting indignant about people pushing in ahead instead of waiting at the end. She was personally taking charge of the situation.
It’s interesting to note how many Italians we’ve seen around the city. I know that sounds silly. The fact is that we tend to be in areas that are frequented by tourists and are used to hearing many different languages. Since we’ve been in Naples the overwhelming majority of the people we’ve encountered have been Italian. Many are obviously on holiday. We suspect that COVID has something to do with this. Italy has one of the highest vaccination rates in Europe and we suspect that Italians are vacationing in their own country rather than traveling abroad.
We got into the restaurant and found a table with little drama. The menu, which was written in Italian only, was mainly pizzas. There were no fritte or any other local specialties. Most restaurants we’ve been in have had menus in multiple languages. It’s surprising that a famous tourist destination like this wouldn’t be so accommodating. We expected the prices to be outrageous but they were in line with what we’d seen at other pizzerias. I ordered a pizza with prosciutto and various cheeses. Deborah got a pizza Margherita with extra cheese. Both pizzas were good but nothing special – certainly not worth standing in line for hours as we’d seen others do.
On our way back to the apartment we stopped at an outdoor market and bought some fun stuff. We picked up a half dozen interesting looking pastries too. We’d never seen cannoli filled with Nutella or Bueno before. We bought some choux pastries filled with various creams too.
During our travels we have found all sorts of interesting candies. In Europe they have something called Kinder. It’s quite delicious. The only analog we’ve ever found in the States is a product called Kinder Bueno. It is made by the same company but is slightly different – and really not very good. We’d strongly recommend you try Kinder but stay away from the Bueno version.
We booked tickets to the Cappella Sansevero to see the Veiled Christ. Initially the website told us that they were sold out until Monday but there was an error with the credit card screen (sometimes I mess up with websites that are entirely in Italian). When we went back to try and book again there was a spot open for tomorrow at 1:30 pm. Tickets were €8.00 plus a €2.00 charge for graft and corruption per person.
Friday, September 16, 2022
It rained most of the evening and it was drizzling on and off all morning. Normally the rain tends to cool things off but today it just made it even hotter and stickier. It was rather unpleasant. By the time we walked to the church we were pretty much soaked in sweat.
We arrived about 20 minutes early. There was no line. They let us in right away. We entered a richly decorated deep but narrow chapel. It was elaborately decorated in the High Baroque Style with lots of intricate colored marble. The tops of the walls were decorated with numerous white marble sculptures. The sculptures in the four corners depicted the four virtues. The ceilings were painted with bright frescos. The Veiled Christ was situated in the center of the room near the altar.
The sculpture is one of the most famous in the world. Giuseppe Sanmartino’s work was completed in 1753. The famous sculptor, Antonio Canova, admired it so much that he tried to buy it. In fact, the style seemed quite reminiscent of Canova and, if we hadn’t known differently, we might have attributed it to his hand. It’s truly a magnificent work. Unfortunately no photos were permitted.
The chapel was crowded and unbearably hot. In spite of a pair of fans the air was stagnant. We walked around the room twice, more quickly then we would have liked, and took the stairs down one flight to see another exhibit.
The second exhibit is known as The Anatomical Machines. They are complete skeletons of a man and a woman with their entire arteriovenous systems intact. They were created by a Palermo doctor named Giuseppe Salerno and probably date from the early 18th Century. 250 years later there is still much debate on how this was accomplished. It has even been suggested that they are not real. No definitive answers have been found for either question.
Like the Veiled Christ we’d heard of them before. Seeing them in person was rather interesting. The word creepy certainly comes to mind but they were also quite fascinating. Since the air quality downstairs was even worse than upstairs we left after just a few minutes.
As an aside, we’ve been in many churches and museums and they always let you take pictures. Given that we paid a significant price to see these exhibits you’d think you’d be allowed to take photographs. In this case it was just a naked attempt to get you to spend additional money at their gift shop. I think that’s a reprehensible practice. As I’ve said many times, charge what you want to charge, but don’t nickel and dime your customers. It REALLY pisses them off.
We had intended to get some lunch and see some other churches but it started to rain again. We jumped into the first taxi we could find and decided to spend the rest of the day in our apartment.
Saturday, September 17, 2022
We were ambitious today and visited three more churches. First was Chiesa del Gesù Nuovo. It’s a very large, elaborately decorated, Baroque style church. The building was originally constructed in 1470 as a palace for Roberto Sanseverino, Prince of Salerno. Due to some political scandals the building was confiscated and eventually sold to the Jesuits in the 1580s. The church has a rather unusual facade made of bricks placed in a diamond pattern. We were not able to see the facade as it is undergoing restoration. As a matter of fact there is so much scaffolding there that we’ve walked past it many times and didn’t realize that there was a church there.
One of the more unusual decorations was part of an incendiary bomb from 1943 during World War II. Apparently it hit the church but never exploded. It was considered to be a miracle.
Across the street was the Complesso Monumentale di Santa Chiara. It’s a large, Gothic style church with a monastery, tombs, and an archeological museum. It was built in the early 1300s by the Queen Sancha of Majorca and her husband King Robert of Naples. Given its length there are a huge number of family chapels along the sides. Most contain elaborate sculptures for burials and original artwork.
The original stone altar, commissioned by Joanna I, the king’s granddaughter and heir to the throne, has been moved to one of these side chapels near the front. It includes the final resting place of Robert of Anjou. Only some of the frescos have survived in tact. The church was damaged by bombings in World War II.
The last church was Chiesa di San Domenico Maggiore, a Gothic style church founded by the Dominican Friars, situated in the center of the ancient city. Construction started in the late 13th Century and was completed in the early 14th Century. The original church on that location, San Michele Arcangelo a Morfisa, was incorporated into the new building. The square in front of the church contains an obelisk, one of the three so-called plague columns, that were erected to celebrate the end of the plague of 1656. Over the years the church has undergone many structural changes as well as changes in interior decoration. Today much of the church is decorated in the Baroque style.
There are several royal burials in the church including Kings Ferdinand I and II. More recently the church contained the bedroom and study for Professor Giuseppe Moscati (1880-1927). He was a doctor who gained fame ministering to the sick. He was canonized by the church.
For lunch we went back to Via Toledo and returned to a cafe we had eaten at before. They have nice, large umbrellas that shade the tables from the sun. It was particularly pleasant as there was a strong breeze blowing off the gulf. I ordered a pizza fritte and Deborah had a pork Milanese. The dough on the fritte was some of the best we’ve had and it had been liberally sprinkled with sea salt. Interestingly, none of the restaurants in Naples put salt, pepper, or any other condiments on the table. In Rome it was common to have salt, pepper, good olive oil, and other spices. Deborah’s cutlet was nicely breaded and delicious.
