Fontana della Sirena (Piazza Sannazaro)
Napoli (NA)
Hidden gemStreet art
The story
Rejected by Ulysses, the siren Partenope let herself die and the sea laid her on this shore: from her the city took its name. Here she is in marble, lyre in hand, on a rock of horses, lions and dolphins.
Access
FREE, always
More gems in Napoli
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 artChiesa di Santa Luciella ai Librai (teschio con le orecchie)
Napoli
In the crypt of a small church rediscovered in the maze of the Librai rests the skull with ears, which the faithful believed could listen to their prayers.
More gems: Street art
Street artQuartieri Spagnoli (vicoli + murale Maradona)
QS
A grid of alleys born in the sixteenth century for the Spanish troops: laundry strung overhead, votive shrines and, at the end of a small square, the great Maradona mural everyone comes looking for.
- Street art
Murales di Maradona
Napoli (NA)
In the Quartieri Spagnoli a giant mural of Maradona has turned a courtyard into a secular shrine, among scarves, votive candles and fans on pilgrimage.
- Street art
Madonna con la pistola (Banksy)
Napoli (NA)
In piazza dei Girolamini, Banksy's Madonna wears a pistol in place of a halo, the street artist's only Neapolitan work, now protected behind glass.
- Street art
Murale Maradona-Pino Daniele-Troisi (Torre Enel)
Napoli (NA)
On the former Torre Enel of the Centro Direzionale, Jorit has raised vertically the faces of Maradona, Pino Daniele and Troisi: the Neapolitan trinity watching over the city from on high.
- Street art
Maradona 'Dios Umano' di Jorit
Napoli (NA)
In San Giovanni a Teduccio a colossal Maradona fills an entire suburban building, suspended between the divine and the human in the gaze Jorit painted for the neighbourhood.
- Street art
Parco dei Murales (Parco Merola)
Napoli (NA)
Among the tower blocks of Ponticelli, the courtyards of Parco Merola have become an open-air gallery, with tender figures and giant faces painted on the facades of the public housing.