Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
monte 13; info point 10am-5pm; R4 to Via Capodimonte)
, whose ticket office is to
00 06; Via Capodimonte 13; 8am-12.30pm & 5-7pm Mon-Sat, 9am-1pm & 5-7pm
Sun)
, a snack-sized replica of St Peter's in Rome completed in 1960. The co-operative
also runs a fascinating walking tour called Il Miglio Sacro (The Holy Mile), which ex-
plores the neighbouring Sanità district. It must be pre-booked; see their website for de-
tails.
Basilica Santa Maria della
Sanità & Catacomba
di San Gaudioso
( 081 544 13 05;
www.catacombedinapoli.it
;
Piazza Sanità 14; basilica free, cata-
comb adult/reduced €8/5, incl entry to Catacomba di San Gennaro; basilica
9am-1.30pm daily, 50-minute catacomb tours 10am, 11am, noon, 1pm daily; Piazza
Cavour, Museo)
While we love the baroque paintings by Andrea Vaccaro and Luca Giord-
ano - not to mention the two contemporary sculptures by Riccardo Dalisi - it's the atmo-
spheric catacomb beneath this 17th-century basilica that makes it unforgettable. Entered
through the 5th-century
Cappella di San Gaudioso
, which lurks below the high altar, its
damp walls reveal a rather macabre method of medieval burial.
Firstly, bodies would be stored in the arched wall niches, where the
sciacciamorti
(liter-
ally 'corpse squashers') would poke them to release all blood and bodily fluids. Once
dried out, the body would be buried, while the skull would be cemented to the wall and set
over a fresco of the dearly departed. The skull set above a frescoed body depicted with
paintbrushes and a ruler belonged to 16th-century mannerist painter Giovanni Balducci.
The Florentine artist had struck a deal with the Dominicans - in return for decorating their
catacomb free of charge, they would allow him to be buried here (considered a priviledge
at the time). Remnants of Balducci's frescoes remain, though much better preserved is the
so-called
Trionfo della croce
(Triumph of the Cross) mosaic. Created in the 5th or 6th
century, its earthy tones and unusually large lambs suggest that the artist hailed from
Africa. The African connection continues with the catacomb's namesake, San Gaudioso, a
North African bishop who died in Naples in AD 452 and was buried on this site.
In the Cappella di San Gaudioso itself, scan the walls for an intensely colourful 9th-
century fresco of the Madonna and Child flanked by St Gregory and St Marciano. Re-
cently restored, the image was discovered in the 1990s beneath a known 19th-century
fresco.
CHURCH, CATACOMB
