Chiesa di Santa Maria del Carmine

Doting mothers, political drama and the odd miracle: it’s little wonder that this veteran church plays a starring role in Neapolitan folklore. According to legend, when Conrad (Corradino) of Swabia was charged for attempting to depose Charles I of Anjou in 1268, his mother, Elisabetta di Baviera, desperately tried to collect the money required to free her son. Alas, the money arrived too late, Conrad lost his head and his grief-stricken mamma handed the cash to the church (on the condition that the Carmelite brothers prayed for him every day). They agreed, the church went up and a monument to Conrad still remains in the transept. Yet Christ’s own mother is the real protagonist here. Represented by a 13th-century Byzantine icon behind the main altar, the Madonna della Bruna has miraculous powers attributed to it. It’s celebrated every year on 16 July when crowds flock here to watch fireworks leap from the 17th-century campanile, the city’s tallest.