Description
Piazza del Mercato is the large paved square of the Pendino district, in Naples, a stone's throw from the Basilica of Santa Maria del Carmine: for centuries the city's main market and the place of public executions, today a wide and somewhat forgotten space.
In the middle stands the church of Santa Croce e Purgatorio al Mercato, enclosed in a long 18th-century exedra; on either side are two obelisk fountains. All of it is the work of Francesco Sicuro, called in by Ferdinand IV after a firework set the wooden shops ablaze in 1781.
Here the young Conradin was beheaded in 1268, the first of a long series; the last was Luisa Sanfelice, in 1800, after the Neapolitan Republic. Masaniello's revolt also started here; he was born in a house just behind the square.
In the middle stands the church of Santa Croce e Purgatorio al Mercato, enclosed in a long 18th-century exedra; on either side are two obelisk fountains. All of it is the work of Francesco Sicuro, called in by Ferdinand IV after a firework set the wooden shops ablaze in 1781.
Here the young Conradin was beheaded in 1268, the first of a long series; the last was Luisa Sanfelice, in 1800, after the Neapolitan Republic. Masaniello's revolt also started here; he was born in a house just behind the square.