Spaccanapoli Historic Heart

The diamond-pointed facade of the Gesu Nuovo church dominates the square with its dark, jagged volcanic stone. This heavy, spiked exterior was originally the front of a fifteenth century palace built for the Prince of Salerno. Legend says…

The Complesso Monumentale di Santa Chiara distinguishes itself with its majolica-tiled cloister, where rows of octagonal pillars are wrapped in eighteenth-century hand-painted ceramic scenes of rural life. Queen Sancia of Majorca…

The center of Piazza San Domenico Maggiore holds a tall, marble spire topped with a bronze statue of Saint Dominic. This monument dates to the mid seventeenth century, commissioned by the people of Naples to thank the saint for sparing the…

The Cappella Sansevero is marked by the tall, narrow facade of a former private chapel that now sits tightly wedged between the residential buildings of the Spaccanapoli district. Inside, the Veiled Christ lies on a central plinth, carved…

The body of the god Nil, known as the Corpo di Napoli, rests on a stone pedestal tucked into a quiet square near the Basilica of San Domenico Maggiore. This headless, reclining marble statue arrived in Naples with Egyptian grain merchants…

Via San Gregorio Armeno is a narrow, cobblestoned lane choked year-round with glass cabinets and wooden stalls. It houses the city’s historic nativity scene workshops, where artisans craft clay figurines ranging from traditional shepherds…

The Cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta features a facade defined by a neo-Gothic portico added in the nineteenth century. This structure rests directly above the excavated ruins of a Roman market and a Greek street, creating a vertical layer…