tour n. 1

Our first tour, through the historical centre of Naples, takes in some of the most important and historically rich places from Piazza del Gesù to piazza S. Domenico Maggiore: the Church of Gesù Nuovo, the S. Chiara complex and the Palazzo Sangro di Sansevero. The tour takes us through space and time to discover founders of religious institutions, women collectots of sacred works, Abbess art clients, philanthropic queens of the 19th century, women who rebelled against the authority of their husbands or active in religious reform movements. What is more, there are places where 20th-century women writers lived, writers who described the social and cultural life of the Naples of their time; and contemporary centres of research and development of women's history.
Piazza del gesù Nuovo is one of the most important places in the city. Its shape is not the product of design, but the result of processes of extensions of the city towards the west, which were begun in the Late Middle Ages and completed during the Viceroy period with the plan of Don pedro di Toledo.
It can be seen as the meeting-point between the ancient Greek and roman city and that which developed in the 18th century.
In the Angevin period Piazza del Gesù boasted an entrance to the city and this was transferred in the first half of the 16th century to the entrance-point to Via Toledo, a reference point of urban development around the mercatello square, what was to become Piazza Dante.
The lower decumen lies to the northern side of the piazza, where stand the ancient convent complex of the Jesuits and the church.
The fulcrum of the piazza is the Immacolata Spire, erected between 1747 and 1750 with money raised by public subscription organised by the Jesuit Father Francesco Pepe.
The spire, which stands where there was once an equestrian statue of Philip V of Spain, was designed by Giuseppe Genoino.
Two of the greatest sculptors of the mid-18th century contributed to the making of the spire, Francesco Pagani and Matteo Bottiglieri and their workshop assistants. On the lower level of the spire are the statues of Sant'Ignazio and San Francesco Regis; on the higher level is Bottiglieri's relief of Jesus in the Temple and the Crowning,as well as Pagani's Nativity of the Virgin and the Annunciation. In 1753 Pagani also sculpted the medallions, as well as the Virgin, in gold-plated copper.