Naples Cathedral

About

Naples Cathedral, in Italian the Duomo di Napoli and officially the Cattedrale di Santa Maria Assunta, is the principal church of Naples and the seat of its archbishop. Across the city it is most often called the Cattedrale di San Gennaro, in honour of Saint Januarius, the patron whose memory shapes the liturgical and civic life of Naples.

The present building was raised in the Angevin Gothic style at the command of King Charles I of Anjou and rose through the reign of Charles II between 1285 and 1309, reaching completion under Robert of Anjou in the early fourteenth century. It was built upon the foundations of two earlier palaeo-Christian basilicas, whose remains can still be traced beneath the floor.

Within lies an extraordinary gathering of art and devotion. The Royal Chapel of the Treasure of San Gennaro carries frescoes by Domenichino and Lanfranco, altarpieces by Domenichino, Massimo Stanzione, and Jusepe Ribera, a high altar by Solimena, and a bronze railing by Fanzago. Elsewhere are an Assumption by Perugino, canvases by Luca Giordano, and the fourteenth-century frescoes of the Minutolo Chapel mentioned by Boccaccio.

The cathedral preserves a vial of the blood of Saint Januarius, brought out three times each year on the first Saturday in May, on 19 September, and on 16 December. The dried substance is said to liquefy each time, and tradition holds that failure portends misfortune. On 21 March 2015 the blood liquefied during a visit by Pope Francis.

History

Commissioned by Charles I of Anjou and completed under Robert of Anjou in the early fourteenth century, the cathedral was raised in the Angevin Gothic style over the remains of two palaeo-Christian basilicas, one of which, Santa Restituta, can still be entered through its crypt. The facade was reworked by Enrico Alvino in the late nineteenth century but preserves its fifteenth-century portal with sculptures by Tino da Camaino. Pope Innocent IV, Charles I of Naples, Saint Restituta, and a long line of archbishops lie buried within.