tour n. 3

Tour 3 begins at the Archeological Museum and takes us through Caponapoli to the Hospital of the Incurables, the most important work of the South of Italy, cloiseters and convents of Naples at the time of the Council of Trent: Regina Coeli, S. Gregorio Armeno and S. Marcellino. The history of these places is linked to women philanthropists and benefactors who between 1500 and 1800 founded and inspired them, to abbesses who retsructured and administered them, to women of culture who took part in the disturbances and debates of the time.
From the National Archeological Museum, we take Via Santa Maria di Costantinopoli. To the right stands the Church of S. Maria di Costantinopoli (31), whose history is linked to the cult of the Madonna of Costantinopoli of Naples during the years of the plague. A legend tells that during the epidemic of 1527-28 the Madonna of Costantinopoli appeared to an old woman and asked her to build a church where her image was painted on a wall. The image was found on the boundary wall of the city below the fortress of Caponapoli, and it was there that they built the first chapel dedicated to S. Maria di Costantonopoli. Later, in 1575, a decision was taken to build a bigger church along the line of Via Costantinopoli, its purpose being to avert the danger of a new epidemic. The existing church, in the form of a Latin cross and with a characteristic polychrome maiolica dome which provides the interior with bright light, was designed by the Dominican Fra' Nuvolo between 1603 and 1608.
The interior was radically redesigned during the 18th century and is dominated by the splendid main altar which occupies the whole of the choir. Designed and made by Cosimo Fanzago between 1639 and 1644, its cenral marble cornice surrounds the late 15th-century fresco of Santa Maria of Costantinopoli.
About half way through the 18th century, the architect Niccolò Tagliacozzi Canale was commissioned to design the new a sumptuous altar, which was made by the master marble-worker Antonio di Lucca; it was made in antique white, green and yellow marble and decorated by two beautiful putti by Matteo Bottiglieri. Some paintings from the workshops of Solimena and Luca Giordano are also in this church.
Further on, still to the right, is the Academy of Fine Arts (32). When we reach the Church of the Sapienza (33), which faces the Church of San Giovanni delle Monache (34), we turn left into Via della Sapienza until we come to Via del Sole. Turn left into Vico Luigi de Crecchio and walk up as far as Largo Sant'Andrea delle Dame where, to the left, we see the complex of Sant'Andrea delle Dame (35), which is now a university building.
The complex was conceived as a monastery by four sisters, daughters of a wealthy notary of Vico Equense, about the end of the 16th century: Laura, Giulia, Claudia and Lucrezia Parascandalo decided to become nuns with the spritual assistance of the Theatine Fathers; in 1580 Pope Gregory XII approved the foundation of the convent, it was dedicated to Sant'Andrea Apostolo and named the Convent "delle Dame" because it was reserved to the daughters of the highest Neapolitan aristocracy. The Parascandolo family granted every wish of their daughters and extended the convent by purchasing the land around it. The cloisters, which were to be spacious and full of light, were created by Don Innocenzo Parascandolo as a space with high columns in piperno. The convent walls were built by a group of master builders, workers in piperno, and carpenters. The extension work was the cause of a great deal of quarrelling for the appropriation of land. The building of the royal tower, a belvedere cloister designed by the architect Manni in 1748, caused a furious litigation with the monks in the adjoining monastery of S. Gaudioso. This dispute ended in favour of of the nuns thanks to the intervention of Queen Amalia of Saxony.
At the end of the road, before we take Via Maria Longo to the right, we arrive at Largo Sant'Aniello a Caponapoli.
This hill has been called the "hill of Sant'Amelio" and "Capo di Napoli", being the highest point of the ancient city. The area is rich in archeological findings which have only recently been assessed at their true value. This was the hill on which stood the Acropolis to the north west of Neapolis, and was used for religious purposes. It was covered with marble temples, so much so that it earned the name of the "Marbled Royal Palace", a name which remained until Medieval times when the remains of some temples could still be seen: that of the Sun God, of Demetra, of Apolloand Diana - this last being identifiable as the present-day Church of Santa Maria della Pietrasanta. It was here that the important religious rites took place: the city divities were worshipped, there were sacrifices and processions which went their way along the "Sacred" way, probably corresponding to the present-dy Via del Sole, where we now find the barracks of the fire brigade and the building of the old Polyclinic (36).
The Church of Sant'Aniello a Caponapoli which gives its name to the uphill road is 6th century. It is said that in this church the mother of the saint prayed to an ancient painting of the Virgin to give her a child.
According to tradition, this hill is the site of the hypothetical sepulchre of the Parthenope Siren (see Tour 4) related to the birth of the city of Naples.
It is thought that from the ancient Acropolis comes the head of a woman called "Marianna 'a capa 'e Napule" kept in Palazzo San Giacomo, headquarters of the Naples Town Council. This may be am archeological find from the temple dedicated to the Parthenope Siren.
Not far from the Church of Sant'Aniello, to the right, we see the remains of the 4th-century BC tufo Graeco-Roman wall (37) with its characteristic double contina with transversal support.
Further on along Vico San Gaudioso, we come to Largo Madonna delle Grazie, where stands the Chapel of Saints Michele and Omobono (38), built in 1477 by the Tuscan Order of Pisani friars; this , at the end of the 17th century, became the headquarters of the association of Neapolitan tailors, who elected Sant'Omobono as their patron saint. The façade boasts a ppipero column decorated with scissors in high relief, symbol of the art of the tailor. Inside, we find a painting by Nicola Criscuolo of the saints Michele, Giovanni Battista and Omobono and a fine Crucifixion painted by Francesco Pagano in 1492 (this is at present exhibited in the Museum of Capodimonte). An unusual feature is a panel showing a tailor running away brandishing his scissors.
Next to the chapel is the complex of Santa Maria delle Grazie a Caponapoli (39), begun in 1516 and completed in 1535 by the friars of the Pisani Order, who remained in possession of the convent until its suppression in 1809. The church was closed for good in 1970, and since it attracted looters, the entrance was walled up. The piperno portal on the façade is of special interest, it has columns and pilasters supporting a semicircular tympanium with at the centre a niche surmounted by a triangular tympanium; the other decorations have disappeared.
Its interior has a single, wide and well-lit nave with six chapels on each side, typically 16th-century in style; of a later date are the 18th-century stucco decorations above the arches, with busts of saints by Domenico Antonio Vaccaro.
Further along Via Maria Lungo, we come to the main entrance of the Hospital of the Incurables