Santa Maria di Costantinopoli (Naples)
| Chiesa di Santa Maria di Costantinopoli
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| Patronage : | Santa Maria of Constantinople |
| Address: | Via Santa Maria di Costantinopoli, Naples |
Coordinates: 40 ° 30 ′ 39.6 ″ N , 14 ° 9 ′ 1.6 ″ E
The Church of Santa Maria di Costantinopoli in Naples is on the street of the same name. Its history is closely linked to the spread of the cult of the Madonna of Constantinople in this city.
history
When the plague raged in Naples from 1527 to 1528 , the Madonna of Constantinople is said to have appeared to an old, simple woman with the request that a temple be built on the spot where her image would be found on a wall. This is how one of the city's most important religious places of worship came into being.
The church was built from 1575 together with a convent over an existing structure. The work was finished in 1586. At the beginning of the 17th century, the church received its current form through the intervention of the architect and Dominican priest Frà Nuvolo .
description
Exterior
The two-story facade from 1633 is covered by a triangular tympanum . As you can see from the three portals, the church originally had three naves , but the side naves were suppressed during construction in the 17th century in favor of a large rectangular main nave. The dome is decorated with majolica .
Interior
The interior consists of a large nave with five side chapels on the left and right. It is characterized by an elegant white stucco decor by Domenico Antonio Vaccaro and a wood-carved and gilded coffered ceiling on which the coat of arms of the Piazza del Popolo can be seen; the coat of arms of the tribunal of San Lorenzo, on the other hand, appears on the arches of the crossing . Over the arches of the chapels there are wooden bars with fine inlaid decoration by Nicola Tagliacozzi Canale (1728).
The main altar , which takes up the entire width of the choir, is particularly remarkable . It was created by Cosimo Fanzago from polychrome marble . In the center there is the fresco of Santa Maria of Constantinople from the 15th century. Above it a crowning relief with God the Father , and at the two side gates two statues of Saints Rochus and Sebastian .
The vault fresco by Belisario Corenzio in the apse depicts the Blessed Virgin and Saint John asking the Holy Trinity to free Naples from the plague . Corenzio also made the frescoes in the arches of the crossing with prophets and sibyls , and those in the pendentives of the dome .
In the first chapel on the right is a Madonna della Purità (Madonna of Purity) from the 16th century; in the fourth chapel there is a great martyrdom of St. Erasmus by the Flemish painter Aert Mytens , who worked in Naples in the 1580s and 1590s.
The grave monument for the doctor G. Bartiromo on the third pilaster of the nave presents an interesting aedicola with polychrome inlays and mother-of-pearl ; opposite is a bust of Girolamo Flerio , baroque funerary monument of one of the church's benefactors. In the left transept there is another marble grave monument to the lawyer Nunzio Pelliccia from the 16th century.
literature
Vincenzo Regina: Le chiese di Napoli. Viaggio indimenticabile attraverso la storia artistica, architettonica, letteraria, civile e spirituale della Napoli sacra , Newton e Compton editore, Naples 2004. (Italian)
See also
Web links
- Parish website , viewed September 19, 2018 (Italian)