Architecture sights in Campania
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Via Chiaia
Linking Piazza Trieste e Trento with Piazza dei Martiri (and Santa Lucia with Chiaia), pedestrianised Via Chiaia is a lively mix of trendy boutiques, imposing palazzi and perma-tanned fashion slaves. Built in the 16th century, it follows the line of the natural divide that separates the hills of Pizzofalcone and Mortella.
The most famous kid on the block is at the 16th-century Palazzo Cellamare (Via Chiaia 149). Built as a summer residence for Giovan Francesco Carafa, close friend of the Spanish viceroy Don Pedro de Toledo, it later housed Bourbon monarchy guests, including Goethe and Casanova.
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Basilica di Santa Chiara
The Gothic Basilica di Santa Chiara is famous for its majolica-tiled cloisters. What you see today is not, however, the original 14th-century Angevin church but a brilliant re-creation – the original was all but destroyed by Allied bombing in August 1943. Within the nuns’ cloisters is a long parapet entirely covered in decorative ceramic tiles depicting scenes of rural life, from hunting to posing peasants. The four internal walls are covered with softly coloured 17th-century frescoes of Franciscan tales.
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Palazzo delle Poste
Looking like a giant, graffitied UFO, Naples' main post office is a striking Fascist concoction. Product of an urban renewal programme that wiped out the San Giuseppe quarter, it was designed in 1935 by Giuseppe Vaccaro and features a number of Fascist architectural hallmarks: most notably its foreboding scale and black marble columns - a reference to the black armbands worn by Mussolini and his right-wing posse.
Predictably, the front steps are a popular rallying spot for young neofascists.
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Chiesa del Gesù Nuovo
Characterised by the pyramid-shaped ashlar stones on its facade, whose carvings are said to be esoteric symbols, the Chiesa del Gesù Nuovo, dating back to the 16th century, is considered one of the city’s greatest examples of Renaissance architecture. Its frescoed barrel-vaulted interior, the result of a 17th-century spruce-up, features works by a trio of Naples’ big-name baroque artists – Cosimo Fanzago, Luca Giordano and Francesco Solimena.
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Santissima Annunziata
This 14th-century religious complex is as well known for its former orphanage as it is for its jasmine-scented, light-filled basilica. Designed by Carlo Vanvitelli at the end of the 18th century, the basilica's interior is a bold affair with some 44 Corinthian columns lining the nave and a soaring 67m-high dome. The third chapel on the left features a wooden statue of the Virgin Mary, one of the few remnants from the original 14th-century church.
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Duomo
Naples’ spiritual centrepiece, the Duomo sits on the site of earlier churches, themselves preceded by a temple to the god Neptune. Begun by Charles I of Anjou in 1272 and consecrated in 1315, it was largely destroyed by an earthquake in 1456. Copious nips and tucks over the centuries, including the addition of a late-19th-century neo-Gothic facade, have created a melange of styles and influences.
Topping the huge central nave is a gilded coffered ceiling studded with late mannerist art. The high sections of the nave and the transept were decorated by Luca Giordano.
The 17th-century baroque Cappella di San Gennaro (Chapel of St Januarius; also known as the Chapel of the …
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Stazione Mergellina
In the 1920s and 30s, Stazione Mergellina was the station to be seen alighting a train. Currently under the surgeon's knife, it's set to steal the scene again. Designed by Gaetano Coast in 1925, its beaux-arts style is a flouncy combo of glass and iron framework, grand classical columns and high camp extravagance, including two depictions of Mercury languidly posing above the station entrance.
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Chiesa di San Ferdinando
Squeezed into the northeast corner of Piazza Trieste e Trento is the Chiesa di San Ferdinando, which features ceiling frescoes of the good-living Jesuits and a fine marble tomb by Tito Angelini in which lies Lucia Migliaccio, the Duchessa di Floridia and wife of King Ferdinand I. Designed by Giovan Giacomo di Conforto in the early 17th century, it was modified by Cosimo Fanzago.
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Chiesa di San Francesco
One of Sorrento’s most beautiful spaces, the medieval cloisters of the Chiesa di San Francesco are well worth a look. A harmonious marriage of architectural styles – two sides are lined with 14th-century crossed arches, the other two with round arches supported by octagonal pillars – they are often used to host exhibitions and summer concerts.
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Chiesa di Santa Maria Assunta
The lofty, ceramic-tiled dome of the Chiesa di Santa Maria Assunta is the town’s most famous, and pretty much only, major sight. Inside the church, classical lines are broken by pillars topped with gilded Ionic capitals, while winged cherubs peek from above every arch. Above the main altar is a 13th-century Byzantine Black Madonna and Child.
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Cathedral
The gleaming white facade of the cathedral gives no hint of the exuberance housed within. There's a particularly striking Crucifixion above the main altar. The triple-tiered bell tower rests on an archway into which three classical columns and a number of other fragments have been set.
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Chiesa Sant’Eligio
One block west along Via Sant’Eligio, the Chiesa Sant’Eligio was the first Angevin church in Naples. Built in 1270 by Charles I of Anjou, it features a beautiful external arch adorned with a 15th-century clock.
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