The Trip That Keeps Growing: 4 September 2023 Naples Walking Tour #2

4 September 2023 Naples Walking Tour #2

Today we finished our tour of Naples, with its many historical and beautiful buildings, fountains, unique churches, caves and underground catacombs, and layers upon layers of history. We started at the Naples Cathedral. Commissioned by King Charles I of Anjou, the church was built between the 13-14th centuries. The Naples Cathedral, also known as the Cathedral of the Assumption of Mary, is the main church of Naples and southern Italy. However, to the locals, the church is commonly referred to as the Cattedrale di San Gennaro in honor of St. Januarius (the English translation of San Gennaro), the city’s patron saint. Because of its many restorations and additions, the fusion of architectural styles of the church include Gothic, Renaissance, and Baroque. It was built over previous paleo-Christian churches, and excavations have unearthed many Greek and Roman artifacts underneath the Cathedral. Adjoining the cathedral is the Archbishop’s Palace.

The outside façade is dominated by a large central tower and many ornate sculptures.

Inside the church are three naves separated by over 100 ancient granite columns and a gilded coffered ceiling. There are several chapels, including the Royal Chapel of the Treasure of San Gennaro. This baroque chapel is the most lavishly decorated chapel and contains beautiful frescoes, a high altar, the paleo-Christian baptistery, and mosaics from the 4^th century and is separated from the Cathedral by a bronze gate. It is said that if you strike the gate with a coin, it will emit real musical notes. Surrounding the sculpture of St. Januarius, located on the main altar, are18 statues of other saints. All told, there are 54 silver busts depicting the patron saints of Naples. There are seven altars within the chapel with the main altar containing two ampules of the presumed blood of San Gennaro, believed to have been collected by a woman named Eusebia immediately after his death, and San Gennaro’s skull. The urn containing the rest of Gennaro’s body lies under the main altar of the Succorpo Chapel, which is the crypt of the Cathedral.

Just a little history about San Gennaro. According to records he was born in 272 AD, but his birthplace is unknown. At some point in his young life he became a Christian and the Bishop of Naples. During the 4^th century persecution of the Christians by the Emperor Diocletian, Gennaro was beheaded in the year 305. For many years his body lay buried in several places – first in Capodimonte, then in Benevento and finally to the Sanctuary of Montevergine. His remains were then returned to Naples and placed in the Catacombs of San Gennaro. In the 9^th century, his remains were moved to the crypt in the Cathedral of Naples. One three days annually – the Saturday before the first Sunday of May, September 19, and December 16 – the vial of his blood is shown to the faithful. The blood, which is a solid substance, is said to liquefy. While no one knows why, this phenomenon has been tested and seems genuine and to the faithful in Naples, this is the true miracle. They believe that if the blood does liquefy, disaster will befall Naples.

The left nave of the church leads to the archaeological remains of the nearby original palaeo-Christian church of Santa Restitura (built in the 4-5 centuries AD). There you can see a Greek wall that belonged to the temple of Apollo and under the apse are a section of the Roman aqueduct and a portion of a Greek road. The church also contains the 6^th century San Giovanni in Fonte baptistery, the oldest baptistery in Europe and decorated with 4^th century mosaics.

From the Cathedral we walked down Tribunal Street, Naples’s main east-west street during Greek and Roman times. Only about half a mile in length, it contains many of the city’s most important monuments and churches including the Naples Cathedral – 20 churches are located in this half-mile stretch. Although the street is narrow and cobblestoned, cars are allowed to drive here. The street is lined with not only the churches, but the decaying and crumbling palaces of the city’s nobility from years past.

Our next stop was the Basilica di San Paolo Maggiore. Built over the ruins of the 1^st century Roman Temple of Dioscuri (dedicated to Castor and Pollux, the Basilica di San Paolo Maggiore has undergone many restorations and renovations since its original construction. The current church was almost entirely rebuilt following a devastating earthquake in the late 1688. But one thing that has remained constant are the two Corinthian columns that are the only remnants of the original temple. Today they are part of the front façade of the Basilica. Adjoining the front façade is a double staircase that is flanked by the two Corinthian columns. Also found along the edges of the front façade are statues of St. Peter (on the left) and St. Paul (on the right). The church was not open when we arrived, so we opted instead to visit the Naples Underground whose entrance was right next to the church.

Over the past 2500 years, a labyrinth of passageways, tunnels, aqueducts cisterns have been built under the city (known as the Napoli Sotterranea). In the 4^th century BCE, the Greeks built a 280 mile-long network. When the Romans took over Naples, they added aqueducts to this network. Today we walked down 120 feet into this infrastructure to see the aqueducts, cisterns, catacombs, caverns, roadways, and rail tunnels. The first couple of rooms that we visited were more modern – they were constructed at the beginning of WWII to be used as shelter from air raids. After the cistern system ceased to be used as a source of water, people began throwing their trash down into the rooms. To create the bomb shelters, the city poured concrete over the trash to make a floor, so what we were standing on was years and years of trash! These small rooms each held about 4,000 people. As we walked through several of these rooms, we saw abandoned toys that Mothers had brought for their children to help ease the anxiety of an air raid, a room that was lined with tiny stalls all the way around – you guessed it – a bathroom, and several tiny little rooms with one stone bed that was used by newly weds for at least one night of privacy. There was also an on-going experiment by the local university to see if plants could grow without watering. Judging by the looks of the plants, the humidity of these rooms and tunnels was providing them with enough water.

Then the exciting (or terrifying) part of the tour began. This was not for the claustrophobic or faint of heart. We had to walk through a very small tunnel which was about 18” wide and very dark. We literately had to side-step our way using our cell phone flashlights. I did learn something – if you try and take a picture with the flashlight one, you lose the flashlight. I am still trying to find it on my phone – oh, where is Caitlyn when I need her! The tunnel (which at least was tall enough that you did not have to duck walk) opened up on a large cistern of water that was fed by river in Naples. We walked to three different cisterns and then had to walk up 132 steps to reach the surface.

At the end of the tour, we visited a Greco-Roman theater where it was said that Emperor Nero had a private dressing room. He fancied himself a very good singer, but most historians that that was only his inflated ego telling him that! We started this part of the tour in a small apartment that had been owned by an eighty year old woman. Archeologists new the theater existed as they could see an outline of it from images taken from space, however finding it was another matter. They were able to convince the woman to move and let them have her apartment for their research. Upon exploring, they found that in the woman’s basement, she had a wine cellar that was actually part of the theater’s dressing rooms. One reason you can only see this small evidence of the theater’s existence is that over the hundreds of years, people have built their homes on top of the ruins or made the ruins part of their homes. Our guide pointed out several windows at the top of the ruins that were windows of an existing B&B.

After a relaxing lunch of margarita pizza and soda, we then walked over to another of Naples ancient street – Via San Gregorio Armeno. It was once home to a temple dedicated to the Roman Goddess Ceres where her worshippers would bring little figurines made in nearby shops. Today, that tradition continues on this narrow alleyway as workshops make figurines for Nativity scenes. In addition to the nativity figures, artists also create modern figures such as sports stars, celebrities and politicians. The street is not very wide and was crowded with people and the occasional car or motor scooter.

We wound our way through the maize of streets and alleys until we came to our final stop, the Church of Santa Chiara. Built by King Robert of Naples and his wife between 1310-1328, this complex of religious buildings contains the 14^th century Gothic Church of Santa Chiara, a monastery, royal tombs of the Anjou rulers, and a beautiful and peaceful garden. Today it also houses an archeological museum which contains the ruins of a 1^st century Roman spa and sauna. King Robert is buried in one of the tombs.

Except for a rose window, the outside of the church is rather plain. The interior, which is the largest in Naples, has ten chapels containing Gothic monuments.

But perhaps the most stunning section of this complex is the cloisters surrounding the garden. 72 columns line the walkways within the garden and a series of benches connect these columns. These columns and benches are decorated with 18^th century hand painted Majorca tiles, each unique and showing various scenes depicting rural life and fishermen with their catch. Tiles of flowers and vines appear to climb up the columns. The ceilings of the cloister’s porticoes are decorated with 17^th century hand-painted frescoes. The gardens themselves are filled with citrus trees and roses. Considering this was once a place of solitude for the nuns who had vowed to remain silent during their lifetime, some of the scenes depicted would today probably not be “politically correct.” Some of the scenes depicted on the tiles include boar hunting, bowling, dancing, and “horrors of horrors” – a Carnival revel!

The mosaics were truly beautiful and the garden was so peaceful and relaxing. I was very tired by this time so I just sat on one of the benches and enjoyed the colorful mosaics. Bill visited the archeological museum with its Roman ruins. A fitting end to our stay in Naples.

Tomorrow is a travel day as we leave Naples and head for Puglia and Matera.