The forecast promises a morning of dry-weather sightseeing in Napoli (pop 908,082 in 2025), but a very wet evening. The lady at the front desk suggests we try the stalls of 'La Via dei Presepi', smalls shops selling Nativity scene figurines. This is in the heart of the old town, and near many other tourist sites, so is both appealing and convenient – if the weather turns.
We retrace yesterday's walk from the Piazza del Gesù Nuovo to the the Piazza San Domenico Maggiore, and we're able to gaze at the artwork without risking a face full of raindrops. Both the Guglia dell'Immacolata (Giuseppe Genoino, 17th-18th centuries) and the Guglia di San Domenico (Francesco Antonio Picchiati & Domenico Antonio Vaccaro, 1656-1737) look much better under the bright morning clouds.
As the distance is short, we zig and zag our way through the colorful cobbled canyons, enjoying the many homemade homages – La Madre competing with Maradona for the devotion of the Napoletani.
We eventually reach 'La Via dei Presepi', the Via San Gregorio Armeno, and dive into a fascinating miniature world. The stalls sell a prescribed menu from the presepe Napoletano: small figurines, very small figurines, cornicelli (lucky red 'horns'), small building enclosures, larger hillside enclosures, pre-made presepi under glass globes, and a variety of extra-large figurines.
The presepi comprise the well-known Nativity figures (Madonna, Child, Joseph, Magi, angels, oxen, donkeys) as well as local merchants, such as fishmongers, bakers, farmers. This means the shops also sell very-very small buckets of fish, trays of pastries, boxes of vegetables, and baskets of eggs. There are masked pagliacci and recurring comical characters covered with lottery numbers (?) known as gobbi portafortuna, which are like the cornicelli, symbols of good luck.
Still, other stalls recognize the tourists' pressure and push their artisans to create celebrity statuettes: the Pope, the British King, JFK and Castro, and (of course) Elvis. Maradona is regrettably posed on a balcony with Trump.
Some of the presepi are not in Nativity scenes at all; many simply illustrate life in small town Italy. There are people singing and playing music, sleeping, baking bread, and walking to the market. Others try to blend these with scenes of folks decorating the town for the Christmas season.
We reach the end of 'La Via dei Presepi', and the mood changes abruptly at the Via dei Tribunali, where the bollards are capped with brass teschi (skulls). This is the Chiesa del Purgatorio ad Arco (di Santa Maria delle Anime, 17th century) and around the side is the imposing entrance to Napoli Sotterranea.
Inside, the Chiesa is small with a series of arched Baroque chapels. Spotlights highlight the winged skulls in the pilasters near the altar. The docent hands us a laminated sheet, a 'visitors' guide', and directs us down to the chiesa inferiore, which is a dim, plain version of the space above. Chains with 'crossbone' medallions protect a tomb in the floor near the bottom of the stairs; real and sculptural skulls are everywhere. The 'visitors' guide' explains:
The presence of anonymous human remains produced, towards the end of the seventeenth century, an intense and spontaneous worship that was expressed by the adoption of a skull. It used to be mainly a female worship: after a dream, the women chose a skull among several human remains to take care of it and then they put it in an little altar on a pillow. People cleaned and washed it with alcohol and cleanser (the so-called "Refrisco"), and they prayed for reducing the time the soul had to spend in Purgatory. In return, the soul can intercede for them to obtain a grace.
To the left of the lower altar is a corridor with niches – no photos allowed. This leads to the hypogeum; the near side is lined with square niches filled with decorations and bones and with earth graves on one side. In a rough altar at the far end, a skull wears a bridal veil and sits on a pillow; this is the teschio from the legend of Principessa Lucia – a young bride who dies after her marriage.
Returning to the chiesa superiore, we get a closer look at the chapels and the altar. The first includes "San Michele Archangelo Abatte il Demonio" (Girolamo de Magistro, 1650), with the missal opened to, "OMNIUM FIDELIUM DEFUNCTORUM" – Requiem Mass (for All Souls Day, November 2nd). The iron gates and railings carry on the teschio and memento mori themes.
The main altar surrounds the "Madonna delle Anime Purganti" (Massimo Stanzione, 1638-42) and sits under a tall drum and dome. The 'visitors' guide; mentions the carved "Teschio Alato" (winged skull, Dionisio Lazzari, 1669) behind the altar, but the area is not accessible today.
Through a corridor, we reach the sagrestia, right on top of the hypogeum, which is filled with tiny displays of people burning in Purgatory – figurines reminiscent of the presepi, but with a very different purpose and tone.
The sagrestia joins to a oratorio, which contains the Museo dell'Opera Pia. This is dedicated to and contains a painting of the "Madonna dell'Immacolata" (Michelangelo Buonocore, 1748).
Along with vestments and liturgical items, we find a small television playing images from the hypogeum. Though photography is prohibited in the lower chapels, we guiltlessly take pictures of the screen. As we watch the images cycle on the television, a trumpet begins playing near the altar startles us and draws us back to the main church.
Passing the area behind the altar, we see the trumpeter. Following him to the side of the altar, we see an opera singer and a dancer on the floor of the chancel. The dancer takes a sheet of black cloth and strikes a sequence of ghostly poses.
The dancer exchanges the black cloth for a length of earthy gold fabric. We turn and realize the small church is packed with people watching the performance, "Trapassati" (Mauro Maurizio Palumbo); they must have entered while we were in the crypt. We feel like we are practically on stage (not part of the show!) and timidly make our way out.
The Via dei Tribunali takes us past the Chiesa dei San Girolamini (17th century). The facade presents "Le Tavole dei Comandamenti" above the portal. Between the bell towers, a sunburst tondo holds a Madonna and Child with orb and Cross.
We somehow miss the left turn on the Via Duomo and end up in front of the third of the three guglie (plague spires), the Guglia di San Gennaro (Cosimo Fanzago, 1636-60). The saint stands atop a large Ionic support, but the capital and the putti on the entablature are wrapped in gauzy netting.
Walking around the Guglia, we discover a tall stairway at the end of the Piazza that provides a 'back door' to the Duomo.
Thus, we enter the Duomo di Napoli (di Santa Maria Assunta, 13th century) near the south (Epistle) transept. The interior is vast and radiates warm luminescence. The south transept ends with two barrel-vaulted chapels split by the tomb of "S.R.E. CARDINALIS CARACCIOLUS", dated 1678. The vault on the left contains the beautiful "Assunzione della Madonna" (con Santi e il Cardinale Oliviero Carafa, Pietro Perugino, 1506-09), which had previously been at the main altar.
High above, oval panels form a false clerestory, and the subdivided ceiling treatment is consistent from the two transepts to the main nave. But the angles, distance, condition of the images, and the lighting make it impossible to read the iconography.
The lateral chapel is La Cappella di Sant'Aspreno, filled with gorgeous Renaissance frescos within its Gothic stonework, the "Storie di Sant'Aspreno" (Agostino Tesauro, early 16th century). The frescos in the lower register are also Gothic (Pietro Cavallini, 13th century) and wonderfully preserved.
A heroic sculptural group of "L'Assunta" (Pietro Bracci, 1739) stands at l'altar maggiore. and seems to be the source of the incredible glowing light that permeates the church. An integrated stained-glass panel with the Santo Spirito backlights the Santa Maria as she ascends, with two additional arched windows on each side, and five oculi in the drum of the half dome. In the central quatrefoil, angels play music and welcome Her arrival.
Unfortunately, the frescos in the Evangelist side lateral chapel, La Cappella Galeota (del Santissimo Sacramento), are water damaged.
There are stairs on either side of the raised chancel that lead down to the crypta and the Cappella del Succorpo di San Gennaro, a stunning space designed by the Renaissance sculptor Tommaso Malvito (c1490). The floor is a kaleidoscope of colored stone; five pairs of 'sideways' Ionic columns create a central corridor connecting the praying statue of Cardinale Oliviero Carafa (the chapel's patron) and the altar with the ossuary possessing the bones of San Gennaro.
In the bays of the ceiling are tondi with portraits of "La Madonna e i Santi" in deep relief; "S. MARCE EVAGELL / HOC FAC ET VIVES" ("do this, and you will live", Luke 10:28) is written in mirror text, though "S. IANUARIUS" is not.
Back on the main floor, the former Basilica di Santa Restituta (the first cathedral, 4th century, rebuilt 13th & 17th centuries) is attached to the north side of the Duomo, and acts as an extra-large chapel.
This is 'balanced' on the south side with the La Reale Cappella del Tesoro di San Gennaro, a soaring domed chapel, with the fresco of "Paradiso", with fantastic blue and gold highlights, in the cupola and the pendentives (Domenico Zampieri & Giovanni Lanfranco, 1633-43). While the bones of San Gennaro are in the Cappella del Succorpo, his blood is in the "Busto Reliquiario" (1305) on the left side of the retable; the blood is used in the il rito dello scioglimento (liquifaction) during the feast days.
The Cappella del Crocifisso includes a feint background landscape with Vesuvio, the sun, moon, and stars, and an incredible twelfth century Crocifisso. Also from the south aisle, the Cappella delle Reliquie is filled with velvet-lined cabinets and an image of the Pentecost, "La Discesa dello Spirito Santo sugli Apostoli" (Andrea Malinconico, 17th century).
From the main portal, we escape to the Via Duomo; it's raining. The street is not wide, so it's impossible to get a great picture of the front facade. The cupola of the Cappella del Tesoro is on the right, with short dormer 'rooflets'. The rest of the facade is a mix of Gothic features arranged with Romanesque proportions – heavy, thick, flat stonework.
The facade is punctuated with two oculi. At the top, Cristo gives a sign of blessing with the text in three trefoils, "EGO SUM PRINCIPIUM ET FINIS" ("I am the beginning and the end", Revelation 1:8). And over the portal is the dedication to "Santa Maria Assunta" with Cristo about to crown Santa Maria above a choir of angels. "San Michele e il Drago" appears as a finial at the peak of the portal pediment.
After lunch, the rain is lighter but steady. We head for the cover of the Chiesa del Gesù Nuovo (15th-18th centuries). The entrance is on the north side of the Piazza, and we go from the dark skies to the dark facade to a dark interior. There is some kind of service or ceremony in front of the eastern (Epistle) lateral chapel. We do our best to stay quiet and explore without squeaking our shoes.
The church is only a bit smaller than the Duomo, but there is a large dome over the crossing and four smaller domes over the outside corners. The ornamentation is dense throughout. The frescos of "I quattro Evangelisti" (1635-36) in the pendentives of the central dome are by Lanfranco. After an earthquake in 1688, the cupola no longer has the "Paradiso" that Lanfranco also painted (imagine the cupola from the Duomo's Cappella del Tesoro).
There are two bays to the crossing, then two bays for the chancel and choir. Each transept is one bay deep to the west and east, so its plan is a cruciform hybrid, neither Latin nor Greek. We can make out the images in the larger panels of the barrel vault over the nave: "Apocalise" (@ the facade) and "Circoncisione" (@ the dome, both Paolo de Matteis, 1698). The "Incoronazione" is over the chancel and the "Assunzione" (both Stanzione, 1639-40) is over the altar. As the lighting here is stronger, we can also read the smaller images: "Sogno di Giuseppe", "Sposalizio Della Vergine", "Visitazione", and "Annunciazione" (water damaged, all Stanzione, 1639-40).
The "Apparitione della Vergine" (west) and "Predicazione dell Santo" (east, both de Matteis, 1698) are over the transepts. The altar maggiore is dedicated to the "L'Immacolata" and holds four additional figures: "Sant'lgnazio" and "San Pietro" (left), and "San Francesco Saverio" and "San Paolo" (right, all Antonio Busciolano, 1858).
While the service in front of the eastern lateral chapel goes on (where the lights are on), we step under the dome to the west. Even here, in front of the lateral chapel dedicated to San Francesco de Geronimo families continue to gather and pray, and we feel obliged to pause. The fresco in the cupola is "Passaggio del Mar Rosso" (Giovan Battista Beinaschi, 1685) with four Old Testament profeti maggiori in the pendentives that we may identify by the angels holding their names: "Daniel", " Ieremias", "Isaias", and "Ezehiel".
The floor is inlaid with tomb covers marked with family crests, and look like horizontal doors. The altar piece is the "Predicazione del Santo" (1932), signed in the base by the artist Francesco Jerace. This chapel includes the church's collection of reliquaries, held in matching portrait busts. We are reminded again of the presepi.
The west transept altar is dedicated to Sant'Ignazio di Loyola. Crossing the transept arm and under the "Apparitione" fresco, we observe that there are two domes over the aisle, though the furthest one is painted on a flat(ish) ceiling. The "Storia di Gesù e Maria" (damaged) is closest to the transept and set on a drum with windows. "Paradiso" (both Belisario Corenzio, 1613) with the Arma Christi and the Martiri della Salsette (in black robes) fills the false dome closer to the portal.
The Cappella del Sacro Cuore di Gesù is the east lateral; with the service we can only get angled views of the frescoed dome, "I Tre Fanciulli nella Fornace" (Angelo Mozzilo, 1793). The transept altar is dedicated to San Francesco Saverio, but is accompanied today with a photo portrait of Padre Pio.
The east aisle repeats the tall dome, flat dome configuration from the west. The dome fresco is the "Sacrificio di Aronne" (Gaetano D'Apuzzo, 1790), with Satan just above the artist's name. The false dome has the "Simboli della Passione" (Giuseppe Simonelli, late 17th century).
All the locals passing through this chapel touch the hand of the statue; it is a likeness of San Giuseppe Moscati (Luigi Sopelsa, 1990).
As we depart, we try our best to get a good picture of the enormous painting over the portal, "Cacciata di Eliodoro dal Tempio" (controfacciata, Francesco Solimena, 1725). The rectagular form is broken by the top of the door, but the artist ingeniously places figures into these lower appendages to draw our eyes up along a semi-circular sweep to the center of the composition. There, two angels and a horseman drive Heliodorus out of the Temple in Jerusalem – an image and story made famous by Raphael's work at the Vatican.
Outside, it's pouring rain. Luckily, the hotel is just a block away and well stocked with towels.
