One of the most significant places in Naples is undoubtedly the Girolamini complex, located in the historic center between the decumanus major (today's Via dei Tribunali) and Via Duomo.
It is a complex consisting of several spaces: the church, the picture gallery, the library (one of the most important in southern Italy) and two monumental cloisters.
The Church of the Girolamini, also known as the Church of San Filippo Neri, is one of the most important churches in Naples from a historical and artistic point of view. In fact, its interior houses important works, especially from the Baroque period. The church overlooks Piazza dei Girolamini, which in turn faces Via dei Tribunali. The church was founded in 1586 by the Filippini Oratoriani fathers, better known as Girolamini, as the first "Oratory" had been founded at the church of San Girolamo della Carità in Rome. They had arrived in Naples in the early 1580s and, thanks to substantial donations from nobles and religious, had purchased the Palazzo Seripando on Via Duomo with the aim of founding a community, dedicated, like the one in Rome, to the practice of the sacraments and the care of people in need.
The initial project in 1587 saw the construction of a primitive church and oratory, probably built under the direction of the Florentine architect Dionisio Nencioni di Bartolomeo, documented officially only from the following year. The Girolamini, meanwhile, purchased in 1592 the entire insula bounded by Vico dei Girolamini and Via Duomo, beginning the construction of the present church within what we know today as largo dei Girolamini. In order to do so, they decided to tear down a number of pre-existing churches, including the churches of Saints Demetrius and Simeon, Saints Cosmas and Damian, and Saint Pantaleon. The architect who directed these works was Domenico Fontana, famous for his works in Rome in the late 16th and early 17th centuries.
It is at this point that the figure of Giovanni Antonio Dosio, an important Tuscan architect who was very active in Rome and Florence, enters the scene. To Dosio's project, albeit with some uncertainty of attribution, seems to be traced the entire interior layout, inspired by the basilica of Santo Spirito in Florence and the Roman basilica of San Giovanni dei Fiorentini. Upon his death, the aforementioned Dionisio Nencioni di Bartolomeo returned to the Girolamini building site and completed the project in 1619, the year the church was inaugurated. In the 17th century, after 1655, the dome and facade were built to the design of Dionisio Lazzari. The latter was then revised and renovated in 1780 by Ferdinando Fuga, who added two bell towers, completed a few years later by the great Giuseppe Sanmartino with statues of St. Peter and St. Paul and other sculptural decorations on the portal. After the bombing of 1943, the church was severely damaged and underwent major restoration. In the second half of the twentieth century, further maintenance work was carried out and, to date, the entire Girolamini complex is not fully open to visitors, as demanding restoration work has been going on for years.
The interior of the church is in the shape of a Latin cross and has three naves divided by twelve mighty granite columns, six on each side. Upon entering one is immediately struck by the magnificence of the rooms, rich in gold, frescoes and polychrome marble created by the best artists present in Naples in the seventeenth century. On the counterfaçade we immediately find the Expulsion of the Merchants from the Temple, a 1684 fresco by Luca Giordano. In this masterpiece of Jordan's maturity Christ is undoubtedly the main figure, around whom the whole scene revolves. The son of God is intent on driving out the merchants from the temple who, frightened, flee down the stairs. Of this fresco we note the movement of the characters and, above all, the typically Baroque illuministic effects of the colonnade. On the sides, on the belfry doors, we find two frescoes by Ludovico Mazzanti depicting The Expulsion of Heliodorus and The Punishment of Ozia.
Countless are the works in the Girolamini church and it would be impossible to describe them all. We will limit ourselves to the most important ones that are of the highest level. Among the most important is certainly the canvas by the great Pietro Berrettini, better known as Pietro da Cortona, depicting Saint Alexis dying. The work, made in Rome in 1638 and later sent to Naples, was commissioned by Anna Colonna, wife of Taddeo Barberini, nephew of Pope Urban VIII, and donated to the Congregation of the Oratory of San Filippo Neri. Pietro da Cortona, one of the most important exponents of Baroque painting, gives the scene movement and intimacy through warm, enveloping colors typical of Venetian and Emilian painting. Another outstanding work is undoubtedly Guido Reni's canvas depicting St. Francis in Ecstasy from 1622. Another important chapel in the church is the one that holds a canvas by Luca Giordano depicting Saint Mary Magdalene de' Pazzi, made around 1696.
From a sculptural point of view, it would be impossible not to mention the marble balustrade in the presbytery area that houses the precious Torch-bearing Angelsby Giuseppe Sanmartino. These masterpieces were made of Carrara marble and were created in 1787 at the behest of the Oratorian fathers. The sculptures, about 260 cm high, represent a masterpiece of 18th-century Neapolitan sculpture and are an expression of typically Rococo taste. The draperies of their robes, thanks to wonderful plays of light and shadow, create a sense of lightness and softness. The two angels, moreover, are characterized by an extremely good-natured facial expression and hair that seems to be moved by the wind.
n the left transept is the Chapel of the Nativity. That one takes its name from the central painting by Cristoforo Roncalli, known as the Pomarancio, depicting, precisely, the Nativity. Above, however, we have the Announcement to the Shepherds by Fabrizio Santafede. On either side of these paintings, we can admire in special niches the statues by Pietro Bernini (datable to 1606): Saint Catherine of Siena, Saint Catherine Martyr, Saint Simeon, Saint Matthias, Saint James and Saint Bartholomew.
Information:
Opening hours: Monday through Friday 8:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. - Saturday and Sunday 8:30 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Full price ticket: 5.00 €
Reduced ticket: 2.50 €
