The Museum of the Treasure of St. Gennaro and the Royal Chapel in Naples: seven hundred years of faith and history of inestimable value (ticket)

About this activity

The Treasure of San Gennaro preserves a unique collection encompassing some seven hundred years of history, which came into being thanks to the many donations of devotees and the preservation work of the Deputation. This jewel of art and baroque architecture is recognized worldwide. Some of the most significant masterpieces of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries are part of the collection. Prominent among the masterpieces in the treasury are the Mitra Gemmata and the necklace of San Gennaro, works of inestimable artistic and historical value.

The route includes the visit of Treasure Chapel of San Gennaro adjacent to the Naples Cathedral, a symbolic place of popular devotion where the Saint's relics are kept. An example of the recognizability of the silverware in the treasury is certainly the Splendors, 18th-century candlesticks that tower in front of the high altar.

It is worth taking a close look, in addition to these and the legendary bust of San Gennaro, the almost fifty sculptures: the nineteen full-length bronze sculptures represent the co-patron saints, and corresponding to each of the sculptures are silver busts bearing on their chests a relic, a supernatural militia of fifty-four saints. Between the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, to work silver and make these works, more than three hundred goldsmiths, whose teams, made up of craftsmen of excellence, competed with each other.

L'High Altar curtains a silver tabernacle, recessed in the wall and hidden by a red curtain, where theblood ampoule Of San Gennaro: the liquefaction of blood, or miracle of San Gennaro, is expected by the faithful three times a year as an auspicious sign.

L'historical archive of the museum, which preserves documents, scores and records, is one of the few to have come intact to the present day, overcoming the conflicts of the World War II.

The birth of the Chapel between faith and miracle

The history of the Royal Chapel of the Treasure of St. Gennaro has been written by the visceral relationship between the people of Naples and their patron saint. The Chapel, located inside the Naples Cathedral, does not, in fact, belong to the Diocese, but to the Neapolitans. Once through the monumental gate that separates it from the cathedral, a sacred space governed by a secular organ opens up: the so-called Deputation.

By 1526 Naples was exhausted by a long series of misfortunes: the war among the Angevins and the Spaniards, the Vesuvius which, between eruptions and earthquakes, forced the Neapolitans into a situation of constant danger and, not least, a tremendous plague that had resulted in the deaths of tens of thousands of people.

The Neapolitans, now exhausted, decided to turn to St. Gennaro with a public vote so that he would put an end to these calamities, and they promised him that, in exchange for the grace, they would dedicate to him a Chapel unparalleled.

So it was that, on January 13, 1527, the people of Naples, in the presence of a notary, made a solemn commitment to the saint, asking him for theintercession for the cessation of the plague and signing, in this regard, a real contract. San Gennaro was considered physically present through his relics and before them and three other notaries, the members of what was named Deputation signed on behalf of the city.

The design of the chapel was entrusted to. Francis Grimaldi, a very famous architect at that time.

Although it had been decided to invite painters from other cities, the choice was not shared by the Neapolitan painters, who were offended at being excluded from a space so symbolically important to the capital of the kingdom; some even threatened the painters initially commissioned. The Deputation at that point contacted Domenico Zampieri, said the Domenichino, one of the great fathers of Baroque painting in Italy. In 1631 the contract, now preserved in the archives of the deputation, was finally signed.

It was not long before threats and intimidation also reached the artist. Domenichino decided to flee Naples and returned only at the insistence of friends and because of the imprisonment of his wife and daughter, who were held hostage by the Neapolitans. At that point the painter completed his works, which nonetheless aroused unanimous approval and enthusiasm, but on April 6, 1641, death seized him suddenly; the cause of death is thought to be poisoning.

The completion of the dome was then entrusted to John Lanfranco, which represented heaven there. Subsequently Jusepe de Ribera, called the Spagnoletto, was commissioned to paint the San Gennaro unharmed in the fiery furnace, located on the altar of the right chapel.