Description
The Church of Santa Maria di Piedigrotta stands in Chiaia, at the foot of the Posillipo hill, near the mouth of the ancient Roman tunnel to the Phlegraean Fields. It is a fourteenth-century Marian shrine, famous for the festival of September 8 that for centuries had Naples singing and dancing.
It was built between 1352 and 1353 and dedicated to the Nativity of Mary, on the site of a much older church. It takes its name from the nearby grotto, the tunnel dug by the Romans through the hill. In 1506 the entrance was moved to the side facing the city.
The façade is by Errico Alvino, who mixed Renaissance and Gothic lines; in the pediment a bas-relief shows the Madonna, King Alfonso of Aragon kneeling, and Saint Augustine. The walnut portal of 1853 is carved with the four Evangelists and the apostles Peter and Paul.
The interior is a Greek cross, with a single nave and domes decorated by Eugenio Cisterna. On the high altar stands the Madonna of Piedigrotta, a painted wooden statue from the workshop of Tino di Camaino, dated 1339, adorned in 1802 with two silver crowns.
Behind the altar, the wooden choir of 1525 has twelve little statues of the apostles. In the chapels are canvases by Fabrizio Santafede, Wenzel Cobergher and Belisario Corenzio, while the Filangieri chapels, closed off by a wrought-iron gate, hold the monuments to Gaetano Filangieri and his son Carlo.
In 1453 Alfonso of Aragon entrusted the church to the Lateran canons. Near the entrance, on the right, an inscription recalls the visit of Pius IX in 1849. The complex also includes the pharmacy, the rectory and the bell tower, and in the rectory an ex-voto by Edoardo Dalbono.
The fifteenth-century cloister, attributed to Tommaso Malvito, has capitals with the coats of arms of the Gaetani d'Aragona. It is part of the former Navy hospital, now run by the Army.
Long before the Madonna, people danced here for Priapus: Petronius, in the Satyricon, tells of September rites in honor of the god of fertility, with songs and dances that were anything but chaste. From these, in a way, descends the Piedigrotta festival of September 8.
In 1744 Charles III added a military parade; then came allegorical floats, illuminations and songs, and the musical Piedigrotta was born in 1839 with the triumph of "Te voglio bene assaje".
In 1571 Don John of Austria, commander of the Christian fleet, came to pray here before the Battle of Lepanto; he returned in October to give thanks, after defeating the Turks.
Don't miss
• The Madonna of Piedigrotta.
• The wooden choir of 1525.
• Alvino's façade.
• The cloister.
Did you know?
• In 1680 a quarrel over precedence at the church exit, between a prince and a count, got the festival suspended for that year.
• The Madonna's cloak is kept in a glass case behind the altar.
It was built between 1352 and 1353 and dedicated to the Nativity of Mary, on the site of a much older church. It takes its name from the nearby grotto, the tunnel dug by the Romans through the hill. In 1506 the entrance was moved to the side facing the city.
The façade is by Errico Alvino, who mixed Renaissance and Gothic lines; in the pediment a bas-relief shows the Madonna, King Alfonso of Aragon kneeling, and Saint Augustine. The walnut portal of 1853 is carved with the four Evangelists and the apostles Peter and Paul.
The interior is a Greek cross, with a single nave and domes decorated by Eugenio Cisterna. On the high altar stands the Madonna of Piedigrotta, a painted wooden statue from the workshop of Tino di Camaino, dated 1339, adorned in 1802 with two silver crowns.
Behind the altar, the wooden choir of 1525 has twelve little statues of the apostles. In the chapels are canvases by Fabrizio Santafede, Wenzel Cobergher and Belisario Corenzio, while the Filangieri chapels, closed off by a wrought-iron gate, hold the monuments to Gaetano Filangieri and his son Carlo.
In 1453 Alfonso of Aragon entrusted the church to the Lateran canons. Near the entrance, on the right, an inscription recalls the visit of Pius IX in 1849. The complex also includes the pharmacy, the rectory and the bell tower, and in the rectory an ex-voto by Edoardo Dalbono.
The fifteenth-century cloister, attributed to Tommaso Malvito, has capitals with the coats of arms of the Gaetani d'Aragona. It is part of the former Navy hospital, now run by the Army.
Long before the Madonna, people danced here for Priapus: Petronius, in the Satyricon, tells of September rites in honor of the god of fertility, with songs and dances that were anything but chaste. From these, in a way, descends the Piedigrotta festival of September 8.
In 1744 Charles III added a military parade; then came allegorical floats, illuminations and songs, and the musical Piedigrotta was born in 1839 with the triumph of "Te voglio bene assaje".
In 1571 Don John of Austria, commander of the Christian fleet, came to pray here before the Battle of Lepanto; he returned in October to give thanks, after defeating the Turks.
Don't miss
• The Madonna of Piedigrotta.
• The wooden choir of 1525.
• Alvino's façade.
• The cloister.
Did you know?
• In 1680 a quarrel over precedence at the church exit, between a prince and a count, got the festival suspended for that year.
• The Madonna's cloak is kept in a glass case behind the altar.