The first step is in one of the most beautiful sacred buildings rich in art works and historical testimonies of the city, San Domenico Maggiore, the mother church in the Kingdom of Naples of the powerful Dominican order. Charles II of Anjou strongly wanted it and the construction took place between 1283 and 1324 in Gothic style.

On the square which has taken its name from the church, there is the polygonal apse faces and, on the left, at the top of the wide staircase, the ancient church of Sant’Angelo a Morfina, incorporated into the Basilica, with the elegant fifteenth-century porta. The main entrance of the church of the church of San Domenico Maggiore acts as a backdrop to the internal courtyard of a building overlooking Vico San Domenico and retains the fourteenth-century portal with polychrome marble bands, narrow between two Renaissance chapels and covered by an eighteenth century pronaos. The original Gothic forms were lost in the Seventeenth-century Baroque remakes and attempts were made to restore them with the restorations of Federico Travaglini between 1850 and 1853,, but the profusion of colored stuccoes and gilded moldings betray a neo-gothic taste which does not allow the reading of the original and authentic characteristics of the imposing architectural complex.

The interior, on the other hand, has kept the fourteenth-century Latin cross plan, with three naves with chapels along the aisles and on the sides of the presbytery.

It is in the second chapel on the right that it is possible to admire the work of Pietro Cavallini in the frescoes requested from him during his Neapolitan period by the Brancaccio family. The artist illustrated the space with the Stories of Saint John the Evangelist, Saint Andrew and Mary Magdalene. The frescoes have come back to life for a few decades, after a long oblivion, and they represent a fundamental element to know and deepen the work of the Roman School master.

It is worth remembering how in the Sacristy of the church, dominated by the vault frescoed by Francesco Solimena, the so-called arches of the Aragonese have been kept for centuries, forty-five coffins covered with velvet in which the Aragonese kings and some of the most illustrious figures of the kingdom were buried a during their domination. Among these, the brave Ferrante d’Avalos, author of the aragonese victory in the famous battle of Pavia and beloved nephew of the governor Costanza d’Avalos, married to Vittoria Colonna in the Cathedral of the Aragonese Castle of Ischia on 27th of December 1509.

Another representative place of Cavallini’s work and his pupils in Naples is the church of Santa Maria Donnaregina. The first news on a convent of nuns with the title of “San Pietro del Monte di Donna Regina” dates back to the beginning of the 8th century and, therefore, the domination of Donnaregina is probably linked to the name of the owner of the land on which the convent stands. The oldest edifice of the church suffered serious damages by the earthquake of 1293, so it was by the will of Queen Maria of Hungary, wife of Charles II of Anjou, that the monastery was re-founded. And in fact, her mortal remains were buried in a large funerary monument, located on the left wall of the nave, which was created by Tino da Camaino, the greatest sculptor of the time.

The construction of the church was completed around 1315, in an original Gothic style. The building, with a single nave, had a choir of nuns located on four cross vaults spans, for nearly half of the length of the same nave. That part of the church was reserved for the cloistered nuns of the adjoining convent, who, from there, attended the religious services.

The interior of the church was originally completely covered by frescoes, of which traces remain in every corner of the building. The frescoes bear the unmistakable imprint of Pietro Cavallini and his pupils. More particularly the decoration of the nave with Pairs of Characters from the New and Old Testament, the Last Judgement on the counter-facade and the Stories of the Passion on the left wall of the choir.

However, all the fourteenth-century frescoes, including the Cavallini’s ones, were severely damaged by a fire, caused by a lighting in 1390. The heat generated by the flames erased the most superficial layer of the paintings and changed considerably the colours of what was still visible.

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