Grotta di San Michele di Avella
Avella (AV)
Hidden gemSacred art
The story
Another Michaelic cave in the mountains of Avella: the cult of the Archangel, brought by the Lombards, clung to every cavern in Irpinia like ivy.
Access
FREE, trail
More gems in Avella
History & archaeologyAnfiteatro e castello di Avella
Avella (AV)
The Roman amphitheatre stretched out on the plain and, higher up, the ruins of the castle guarding the Clanio valley: two ages of Avella a short distance apart.
- History & archaeology
Anfiteatro romano e Necropoli di Avella
Avella (AV)
At Avella, the ancient Abella that gave its name to the hazelnut, the Roman amphitheatre and a necropolis of monumental tombs emerge at the foot of the Partenio mountains.
CastlesCastello di Avella (ruderi)
Avella (AV)
Above the Roman amphitheatre, the ruins of the Lombard-Norman castle crumble on a spur. One of the finest views in the Partenio, and almost nobody knows it.
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.