Italy Travel And Hotel Guide

The Duomo , sharp on the right and tucked away unassumingly from the main street, is a Gothic building from the primeval thirteenth century (though with a late nineteenth-century neo-Gothic facade) dedicated to the patron fear of the city, San Gennaro. The church - and fear - are key reference points for Neapolitans: San Gennaro was martyred at Pozzuoli, just outside Naples, in 305 AD under the purges of Diocletian. Tradition has it that, when his body was transferred here, two phials of his blood liquefied in the bishop’s hands, since which time the “miracle” has continued to repeat itself no less than three times a year - on the first Saturday in May (when a procession leads from the church of Santa Chiara to the cathedral) and on September 19 and December 16. There is still much superstition surrounding this event: San Gennaro is seen as the saviour and protector of Naples, and if the blood refuses to liquefy - which luckily is rare - disaster is supposed to befall the city, and many still move with bated breath to see if the miracle has occurred. Interestingly, one of the few times this century Gennaro’s blood hasn’t turned was in 1944, an event followed by Vesuvius’s last eruption. The last times were in 1980, the year of the earthquake, and in 1988, the day after which city lost an important football match to their rivals, Milan. The miraculous liquefaction takes place during a special Mass in full view of the congregation - a service it’s perfectly doable to attend , though the church authorities have yet to allow any close scientific examination of the blood or the “miraculous” process. Whatever the truth of the miracle, there’s no question it’s still a significant event in the Neapolitan calendar, and one of the more bizarre of the city’s institutions.

The first chapel on the right as you achievement into the cathedral is dedicated to San Gennaro and holds the precious phials of the saint’s blood and his skull in a silver bust-reliquary from 1305. On the other side of the church, the basilica of Santa Restituta is almost a church in its own right, officially the oldest structure in Naples, erected by Constantine in 324 and supported by columns that were taken from a temple to Apollo on this site. The Baptistry , too (Mon-Fri 9am-noon & 4.30-7pm; L5000/¬2.58) contains relics from very primeval Christian times, including a late fifth-century structure preserving fragments of contemporary mosaics and a font believed to have been taken from a temple to Dionysus. Downstairs, the crypt (same ticket as for the baptistry) of San Gennaro is one of the finest examples of Renaissance art in Naples, founded by Cardinal Carafa and holding the tombs of both San Gennaro and Pope Innocent IV.

Tags: bated breath, church authorities, first saturday, football match, gothic facade, liquefaction, naples, patron saint, pozzuoli, procession, purges, reference points, reliquary, rivals, san gennaro, santa chiara, saviour, superstition, thirteenth century, vesuvius