Church of Santa Luciella ai Librai

About this activity

The Church of Santa Luciella is an architectural gem in the heart of the historic center of Naples, a small church located on the street of the same name that connects San Biagio dei Librai to San Gregorio Armeno.

Why visit Church of Santa Luciella ai Librai

The interior of the Church of Santa Luciella ai Librai has a single nave with a beautiful majolica floor that has survived years of neglect and neglect. The high altar, located to the left of the entrance, housed the statue of the Immaculate Conception, while, in front of the entrance, is the small chapel dedicated to St. Lucy. On the side wall a passageway leads into the sacristy. Marian coats of arms, made in the 18th-century remodeling, are visible almost everywhere.

The painting on the hypogeous altar was discovered in June 2020, following restoration work. Baron Pasca di Magliano, superintendent of the Pio Monte della Misericordia, was its financier. Since 2016 entrusted to the Associazione Respiriamo Arte, the church has in fact been restored and can be visited safely. The painting to be restored was a 20th-century tempera painting of flames and devils and a triumphant Madonna. When the restorer approached the fresco, he noticed that there was a much older color in part of the work, so a painting as much as 200 years before the tempera painting was unearthed. The small church in the heart of the ancient center of Naples, founded in 1327 by Bartolomeo Di Capua, adviser to Charles II of Anjou and Robert I, later became a place of worship for the Corporation of Pipernieri, Fabbricatori and Tagliamonti, artists who carved hard stones and who entrusted Saint Lucia with the protection of their sight, put at risk by their trade. In 1748 the church became the seat of the Archconfraternity of the Immaculate Conception SS. Joachim and Charles Borromeo and was later abandoned for decades.

The skull with ears, messenger between the living and the dead

The uniqueness of the Church of Santa Luciella ai Librai lies in the legend that hovers within these walls. In the ancient hypogeum, in fact, is kept the famous skull with ears, a rare specimen, if not the only one in the world, of a skull with mummified cartilage, to which the faithful addressed their prayers, hoping that from it they would be heard and taken to the afterlife: in short, a true messenger between the world of the living and the dead. The identity of the skull is unknown to this day; the only certain fact concerns its origins, which are traced back to the seventeenth century. The legend is linked to the cult of pezzentelle souls, whose skeletons were forgotten in mass graves.

The most important things to know about Church of Santa Luciella ai Librai

The Church of St. Luciella was closed for worship in the 1980s and was reopened to the public on April 5, 2019 thanks to the Cultural Association Breathe Art, which has developed a project that aims to restore and enhance the church from a tourism development point of view, through guided tours, and also by holding social inclusion events for people in the neighborhood.