Le Vele di Scampia
Napoli (NA)
KnownViews & panoramas
The story
Le Vele di Scampia, enormous sail-shaped structures designed in the 1970s, remain a controversial icon of the Neapolitan periphery, between demolitions and the memory of redemption.
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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: Views & panoramas
- Views & panoramas
Murale di San Gennaro (Jorit)
Forcella
Fifteen metres high on a facade in Forcella, Jorit's San Gennaro has the face of a young worker marked by the two red stripes of the human tribe.
- Views & panoramas
Belvedere di San Martino
Vomero
From the forecourt of the Certosa the gaze drops sheer onto Naples: the rooftops of the old centre, the bay, Vesuvius and the islands far off — all in a single frame.
- Views & panoramas
Lungomare
via Partenope
A seafront walk from via Partenope: Vesuvius straight ahead, Castel dell'Ovo out on the water, and all of Naples strolling slowly through the evening between a gelato and the horizon.
Views & panoramasFontana del Gigante
via Partenope
A seventeenth-century fountain by Pietro Bernini and Naccherino, moved again and again before settling on the seafront: marble and tritons facing the water, in the shadow of Castel dell'Ovo.
- Views & panoramas
Gran Caffè Gambrinus
P.za Trieste e Trento
Mirrors, stucco and Belle Époque velvet: at the counter you order an espresso and, by old Neapolitan custom, you leave a second one paid for whoever comes next.
- Views & panoramas
Palazzo Mannajuolo (scala ellittica)
via Filangieri
The elliptical staircase climbs in a perfect spiral of steps and Liberty-style railings: lean over from the top and the eye falls into a vortex of stone.