A place of silence and meditation. And of artistic charm too.

That gave its name to one of the most famous streets in Naples, an important stop for anyone visiting the city: St. Gregorio Armeno. This street, naturally associated with the tradition of the nativity scene has been home to a church and a monastic complex linked to the cult of the first patriarch and author of the spread of Christianity in Armenia at the beginning of the 4h century, that is St. Gregory.

A name that in ancient Neapolitan was pronounced as Liguoro or Ligorio just like the homonymous street, which is one of the connecting points between the upper and lower decumanus, right in the heart of Naples, a UNESCO heritage site.

According to the legend, the first holy building was built by St. Helena, mother of the Emperor Constantine. But in reality, it was in the 7th century that on the Nostriana Street, where a hospital for the poor stood, that bishop Agnello, who later became saint, had a church built in honor of St. Gennaro, which from a tree in the nearby square took the name St. Gennaro at the Elm. It was there that about a century later the Basilian nuns who had to flee from Constantinople in the wake of iconoclastic persecution stopped. They brought with them important relics of St. Gregorio and the skull of St. Biagio. And it was they who founded, a short distance from that very first refuge, in the middle part of the street where the temple of Ceres Attica stood back in Roman times, a new church, dedicated to St. Gregory where the cult of St. Patrizia was also located, to whom they were very devoted. To bring them to Naples was the story of Constantine II's niece who, originally from Constantinople, was shipwrecked on the islet of Megaride (now Castel dell'Ovo) in the 7th century and then distinguished herself in the city for her actions in favor of the needy, before dying in 685 just twenty-one year old. The reverence for her had been steadily increasing since then.

In the year 1000, in Norman times, the nuns had a new convent built next to the church of St. Gregory, in which the Benedictine rule was adopted. To build this structure, four neighboring oratories were merged, including that of St. Pantaleone, on the opposite side of the road that made necessary the construction of an overpass, which is still one of the distinctive elements of St. Gregory Armeno street today. Above it rises the bell tower, of which three superimposed orders can be distinguished, equipped with windows and ending with a spire.

The church and its transformations

After the Council of Trent, that made the rules of the cloister very stringent, started a total rework of the religious complex. The church was rebuilt on a project of Giovanni Francesco Mormando, under the direction of Giovanni Battista Cavagna and Giovanni Vincenzo Della Monica. The consecration of the new temple, dedicated to St. Gregory, took place in 1579, as recalled by an inscription placed at the entrance, immediately after the imposing wooden door. The following year however, the temple was open to the public. The building had a single nave without a transept, with five chapels on each side. The rectangular presbytery was surmounted by a semi-dome, covered with majolicas on the outside. The precious marble floor was a creation of Domenico Fontana, while the precious wooden coffered ceiling was made by Dirk Hendricksz, which in Naples, where he arrived from Antwerp in 1573, was known as Teodoro D'Errico or, more simply as o' fiammingo. He and the artists of his renowned workshop painted the Stories of the Baptist, Saint Benedict and other saints.

In the space between the original choir and the roof, the so called "winter choir" was also created, allowing the nuns to attend religious celebrations from outside the church. An opening protected by a grate above the main altar allowed the nuns to observe the whole church.

A further, important step coincided, in the 600s, with the embellishment of the interior of the church. Due to the number and quality of his works, Luca Giordano was one of the major architects of the church's artistic magnificence. In 1684 the artist painted the fiftytwo scenes of the counter-facade in fresco. Three themes developed by Giordano: on the left, the arrival of the Armenian nuns on the shore of Naples; in the center, the translation of the body of St. Gregory and, on the right, the welcome of the Neapolitans to the nuns. The frescoes in the dome, composed in 1671, are also his creation. Also from the 17th century, a marble ancona dominates the main altar. Work of Dionisio Lazzari, and frames the painting by Giovanni Bernardo Lama depicting the Ascension, from 1574. There was also the hand of Cosimo Fanzago, who in 1637 changed the appearance of the first chapel on the right with marble ornaments, to which they were added the canvases by Francesco Di Maria and Niccolò De Simone and the Stories of St. Gregory by Francesco Fracanzano. Then the 700s marked the definitive rococò transformation of the church, with the addition of further stuccos, precious marbles and paintings.

The cloister monastery and sweet delights

Meanwhile, the monastery had also been rebuilt, enlarged to accommodate more nuns and equipped with new common areas. Access from Maffei Alley passes through a scenic piperno staircase, adorned with works by Giacomo dal Po. The cloister, designed by Vincenzo Della Monica, with a simple garden and a vegetable garden is of great visual impact. And to adorn it, in the center, a large fountain with two statues of Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well by Matteo Bottigliero. To make the isolation imposed by the cloister less distressing, five viewpoints were designed, allowing a view of the outside from different perspectives. Past the cloister, there is the Chapel of the Madonna dell’Idria that identifies the oldest part of the structure, which survived subsequent transformations and is adorned with paintings by Paolo De Matteis.

In the large kitchen of the monastery, where sweets were prepared for the noble families from which most of the nuns came, the pastiera would be born, also thanks to the painter Giacomo dal Po, and the Neapolitan cassata typical of Christmas would be perfected.

To build the convent and the church, tuff was used excavated under the buildings and recovered through a well, which in the following centuries was also used as an escape route in case of danger. That well is connected to the routes of the Underground Naples.

The cult of Saint Patrizia

Guarded and handed down by the nuns since their arrival in Naples, the church of St. Gregory is the center of the cult of St. Patrizia of Constantinople. In the fifth chapel on the right are honored the remains of the Saint, co-patroness of Naples together with St. Gennaro. With whom she also shares the miracle of the liquefaction of the blood, collected in the ampoules kept in the same chapel. The celebrations for the miracle take place every Tuesday and August 25, the feast of the patron saint of sailors and pregnant women.


Information: 
Monday through Friday, 9:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. and 3:30 p.m. to 6 p.m;
Saturdays, Sundays and holidays, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m;
Ticket price is €4 full and €3 reduced for schoolchildren. Free for children under 5 and adults over 65.