Chiesa di Santa Margherita Nuova
Procida (NA)
Hidden gemSacred art
The story
Built in the sixteenth century by Dominicans fleeing the Saracens, in the freezing winter of 1956 it collapsed in on itself when the great arches holding it up gave way. Only partly restored, it remains a shell hanging over the Corricella.
Access
Free from the outside and from the belvedere. The convent below is in ruins and NOT open to visitors
More gems in Procida
- Villages
Marina Corricella
Procida
The oldest fishermen's borgo (old village) on Procida, an amphitheatre of pastel houses tumbling down to the harbour, where the boats sleep beneath the hanging laundry.
- Sacred art
Terra Murata
Procida
The ancient core of Procida climbs the yellow tufo (volcanic tuff) headland, between defensive walls and narrow alleys, suspended between the little harbour of Corricella and the horizon of the bay.
- Sacred art
Abbazia di San Michele
Procida
Behind the walls of Terra Murata, the abbey dedicated to its patron Michael guards paintings, an antique presepe (nativity scene) and catacombe carved into the tufo, its vault turned towards the sea.
- Views & panoramas
Belvedere Elsa Morante e dei Cannoni
Procida
From the terrace named after Elsa Morante, among old cannons trained on the bay, the view opens onto the Corricella and its pastel houses heaped upon the water.
- Free beaches
Spiaggia del Pozzo Vecchio ("del Postino")
Procida
The dark-sand beach where Massimo Troisi filmed Il Postino, tucked below the cemetery and the tufo walls, with shallow water and the stillness of a film set never struck.
- Free beaches
Spiagge di Chiaia
Procida
A long stairway leads down to it: a broad stretch of sand and shingle sheltered by high tufo walls, with the fishing boats of the Corricella colouring the background.
More gems: Sacred art
Sacred artCappella Sansevero (Cristo Velato)
Napoli (NA)
Beneath a veil of marble that still seems to breathe, Sanmartino's Cristo Velato rests in the chapel's half-light, and the whiteness of the stone deceives every eye.
Sacred artDuomo di Napoli
Napoli
Three times a year the city holds its breath as the blood of San Gennaro waits to liquefy, among Gothic naves and the gold of the chapel devoted to him.
Sacred artCappella del Tesoro di San Gennaro
Napoli
Behind a bronze gate lie silverware, gems and the jewel-studded mitre of the saint: a treasure heaped up over centuries by the devotion of Naples.
Sacred artChiesa del Gesù Nuovo
Napoli
The facade of pyramid-cut piperno stone hides symbols carved into the blocks, while inside the Baroque bursts out in marble and in the memory of the physician Giuseppe Moscati.
Sacred artChiostro di Santa Chiara
Napoli
A garden of pillars clad in yellow and blue majolica, where lemon pergolas and eighteenth-century scenes painted on the tiles keep the noise of the city at bay.
- Sacred art
Santa Maria delle Anime del Purgatorio ad Arco
Via Tribunali 39
Bronze skulls stand guard at the entrance, and down in the hypogeum the cult of the anime pezzentelle (adopted souls of the dead) still leaves flowers and prayers beside abandoned crania.