Description
Spaccanapoli is the ruler-straight street that splits the old center of Naples in two, north from south. It does not have a single name: it changes from Via Pasquale Scura to Via Benedetto Croce to Via San Biagio dei Librai. It is the lower decumanus of the Romans and, before that, the plateia of the Greeks.
More than a street to look at, it is a street to walk: churches, noble palaces and little squares follow one after another. The route starts from Piazza del Gesù Nuovo and passes through Piazza San Domenico Maggiore, Piazzetta Nilo and Largo Corpo di Napoli, as far as Via Duomo and beyond.
The best view is from above. From Via Pasquale Scura, at the top of the Spanish Quarter, beside the church of Santa Maria ad Ogni Bene dei Sette Dolori, you see the whole street end to end: a perfectly straight line between the rooftops.
The first stretch is that of the great religious complexes. You come across the church of the Gesù Nuovo, the Basilica of Santa Chiara and the Basilica of San Domenico Maggiore. In the squares two obelisks soar, that of the Immaculate Conception and that of San Domenico.
In Piazzetta Nilo is the statue of the god Nile, and the historian Carlo Celano called the street the “street of Nilo”, or of Nido: he measured it, 1,128 paces. Here too is the church of Sant'Angelo a Nilo.
Farther on, along Via San Biagio dei Librai, come palaces such as Palazzo Marigliano and Palazzo Filomarino, the Monte di Pietà and churches such as San Gennaro all'Olmo. From here Via San Gregorio Armeno also heads north.
The street already existed when Naples was called Neapolis and spoke Greek. It was one of the three great parallel roads of the Greek city. The Romans extended it as far as today's Piazza del Gesù: the Roman baths under the cloister of Santa Chiara show it.
In the Renaissance the Gothic palaces were remodeled and new ones were built on the demolished ones, such as Palazzo Marigliano and Palazzo Pinelli. In the sixteenth century the viceroy Pedro de Toledo connected it to the Spanish Quarter on the hill.
Don't miss
• The view from Via Pasquale Scura.
• Piazza del Gesù Nuovo, with Santa Chiara.
• San Domenico Maggiore.
• The statue of the god Nile.
Did you know?
• Between the Middle Ages and the nineteenth century the street was important for the convents of the religious orders and for the houses of the most powerful men.
• Only in the twentieth century, after the bombings, did the church of Santa Chiara return to the Gothic structure hidden under the eighteenth-century stuccoes.
More than a street to look at, it is a street to walk: churches, noble palaces and little squares follow one after another. The route starts from Piazza del Gesù Nuovo and passes through Piazza San Domenico Maggiore, Piazzetta Nilo and Largo Corpo di Napoli, as far as Via Duomo and beyond.
The best view is from above. From Via Pasquale Scura, at the top of the Spanish Quarter, beside the church of Santa Maria ad Ogni Bene dei Sette Dolori, you see the whole street end to end: a perfectly straight line between the rooftops.
The first stretch is that of the great religious complexes. You come across the church of the Gesù Nuovo, the Basilica of Santa Chiara and the Basilica of San Domenico Maggiore. In the squares two obelisks soar, that of the Immaculate Conception and that of San Domenico.
In Piazzetta Nilo is the statue of the god Nile, and the historian Carlo Celano called the street the “street of Nilo”, or of Nido: he measured it, 1,128 paces. Here too is the church of Sant'Angelo a Nilo.
Farther on, along Via San Biagio dei Librai, come palaces such as Palazzo Marigliano and Palazzo Filomarino, the Monte di Pietà and churches such as San Gennaro all'Olmo. From here Via San Gregorio Armeno also heads north.
The street already existed when Naples was called Neapolis and spoke Greek. It was one of the three great parallel roads of the Greek city. The Romans extended it as far as today's Piazza del Gesù: the Roman baths under the cloister of Santa Chiara show it.
In the Renaissance the Gothic palaces were remodeled and new ones were built on the demolished ones, such as Palazzo Marigliano and Palazzo Pinelli. In the sixteenth century the viceroy Pedro de Toledo connected it to the Spanish Quarter on the hill.
Don't miss
• The view from Via Pasquale Scura.
• Piazza del Gesù Nuovo, with Santa Chiara.
• San Domenico Maggiore.
• The statue of the god Nile.
Did you know?
• Between the Middle Ages and the nineteenth century the street was important for the convents of the religious orders and for the houses of the most powerful men.
• Only in the twentieth century, after the bombings, did the church of Santa Chiara return to the Gothic structure hidden under the eighteenth-century stuccoes.