Basilica of the Incarnate Mother of the Good Council

Via Capodimonte 13-14. (Open Map)
(75)

Description

The Madre del Buon Consiglio (or Basilica dell'Incoronata Madre del Buon Consiglio or Maria del Buon Consiglio) (Italian: Crowned Mother of Good Counsel) is a Roman Catholic church. It is located on the hillside leading up to the Capodimonte palace and art museum and is visible from many quarters of the city.
The church has its roots in two miracles observed by local girl Maria di Gesù Landi (21 January 1861 – 26 March 1931). Known for her devotion to Our Lady of Good Counsel (Madonna del Buon Consiglio), she created a painting of the saint in 1884, which apparently stopped an outbreak of cholera in the city in that year. 22 years later, the same painting appeared to clear the ash clouds from the 1906 eruption of Mount Vesuvius.

Vincenzo Vecchio designed the church in model of St. Peter's in Rome. The church was constructed between 1920 and 1940, on top of the ancient Catacombs of San Gennaro. It has become the destination of pilgrimages in the name of Maria di Gesù Landi. The church houses a number of works of art rescued from closed, damaged, or abandoned houses of worship in the city.

Legend has already attached itself to the church: the earthquake of 1980 toppled the head of the statue of the Madonna from the top of the church to the ground, where it crashed and lay inexplicably undamaged.