Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
and Cosimo Fanzago transforming the barrel-vaulted interior into the frescoed wonder
that you see today. Puncturing the Piazza del Gesù Nuovo is Giuseppe Genuino's lavish
Guglia dell'Immacolata
MAP
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, an 18th-century obelisk.
Mercato di Porta Nolana
(Porta Nolana; 8am-6pm Mon-Sat, to 2pm Sun; R2 to Corso Umberto I)
Bellies rumble at this evoc-
ative street market, one of the city's best. The market's namesake is medieval city gate
Porta Nolana
, which stands at the head of Via Sopramuro. Its two cylindrical towers, optim-
istically named Faith and Hope, support an arch decorated with a bas-relief of Ferdinand I
of Aragon on horseback.
The
mercato
itself is an intoxicating place, where bellowing fishmongers and
frutti
vendoli
(greengrocers) mix it with fragrant delis, bakeries and a growing number of ethnic
food shops.
MARKET
Chiesa e Chiostro di San Gregorio Armeno
MAP
CHURCH, CLOISTER
GOOGLE MAP
( 081 420 63 85; Via San Gregorio Armeno 44; 9am-noon Mon-Fri, to 1pm Sat & Sun; C55 to Via
Duomo)
Overstatement knows no bounds at this richly ornamented 16th- century monastic
complex, its church featuring lavish wood and papier-mâché choir stalls, a sumptuous al-
tar by Dionisio Lazzari, and Luca Giordano's masterpiece fresco
The Embarkation, Jour-
ney and Arrival of the Armenia Nuns with the Relics of St Gregory
.
Accessible by a gate on Vicolo Giuseppe Maffei is the complex's superb cloister. Here
you'll find Matteo Bottigliero's whimsical baroque fountain and (at the southern end of
the cloister) the convent's old bakery.
From a door at the southeast corner of the cloister you can access the beautiful
coro
delle monache
(nuns' choir stall) that looks down on the church. The sneaky windows lin-
ing the oval cupola above belong to a second choir stall.
CHURCH
Chiesa di San Domenico Maggiore
MAP
GOOGLE MAP
( 081 45 91 88; Piazza San Domenico Maggiore 8a; 8.30am-noon & 4-7pm Mon-Sat, 9am-1pm & 4.30pm Sun;
Dante)
Completed in 1324 on the orders of Charles I of Anjou, this was the royal church
of the Angevins. Of the few 14th-century remnants surviving the church's countless
makeovers, the frescoes by Pietro Cavallini in the Cappella Brancaccio take the cake. The
