Il Duomo

The cathedral of Naples and Feast of San Gennaro

The neo-Gothic facade of Naples' cathedral—built in the French Gothic style for Charles I in 1294 but rebuilt after a disastrous earthquake in 1456—was finished in 1905, but the central portal survives from the 1407 version. The 16 piers inside are made up of 110 antique columns of African and Asian granite removed from nearby pagan buildings.

The third chapel on the right is the sumptuous 17th-century Cappella di San Gennaro, elaborately frescoed by Domenichino and, later, Giovanni Lanfranco, who completed the concentric clouds of saints and angels spiraling up the airy dome.

Also here is a painting of San Gennaro Exiting Unharmed from the Furnace by Giuseppe Ribera, showing one of the miracles performed by Benevento's persecuted bishop in AD 305, who survived both being thrown to lions and this roasting only to be done in by an ax to the neck.

Among the silver reliquaries you'll see one of St. Irene Protecting the City, in which the saint holds a scale model of Naples circa 1733. The most venerable items in all of Naples, however, are the ears-poking-out and vaguely Asian-looking silver reliquary bust that preserves the head of the city patron, St. Gennaro—of New York City–street festival fame—and two vials of his coagulated blood, also stored behind the chapel altar.

No blood for commies
"This phenomenon, this 'standing miracle,' repeats itself on various feast days...except during times of strife, famine, oppression, and the election of a Communist mayor."
—On the regular liquefaction of St. Gennaro's blood, Saints Preserve Us!, 1993The latter are taken out on the first Saturday of May and on September 19 and December 16 amid much religious pomp and ceremony, whereupon they miraculously boil and liquefy back into blood again (Gennaro, incidentally, is the patron saint of blood banks).

The speed with which they do so is a prediction of Naples' prosperity for the coming months. When the miracle occurs, the faithful line up to kiss the vials.

To the right of the High Altar are two chapels with staccato remnants of 13th- and 14th-century frescoes and inlaid marble floor. The Crypt of San Gennaro (a.k.a. Cappella Carafa) beneath the High Altar is one of the greatest examples of Renaissance design in Naples, including the Cosmatesque-style tomb of Pope Innocent IV (1315). To the left of the High Altar is a chapel containing an Assumption by Umbrian master painter Perugino.

Off the left aisle is the entrance to the ancient Basilica di Santa Restituta, a pre-existing church built in the 4th century atop a Temple to Apollo, which may have contributed the antique columns of the nave (rebuilt in the 14th century).

Luca Giordano's brush was active again here on the ceiling, but the highlight is the  baptistery at the back. This domed cube of a room is the oldest building of its kind in Christian Europe, built in the 5th century and retaining impressive swatches of the original mosaics on the dome.

From this little side church you can also descend to the basement where a few scraps of Greek and Roman streets, walls, and even mosaics remain.

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