The Church, built between 1343 and 1418, was the “pantheon” of the last Angevin kings. It has no facade – the facade of Saint Monica’s Church, which is grafted at a lower level than the nave of the church, takes its place – while the apse actually stands at the Caracciolo del Sole chapel’s entrance. Up a staircase -designed by Ferdinando Sanfelice (1707) – which leads in a courtyard on the side of the church, the current entrance can be accessed. The interior is dominated by the monument of King Ladislao, erected by his sister Giovanna II, depicting Ladislao and Giovanna enthroned, the lying former King blessed by a bishop with two deacons and, at the top, Ladislao on horseback with his sword unsheathed: a rather unusual setting to see in a church. The monument, dated 1428, is the work of several Tuscan and northern artists. Going forward and leaving the monument behind, the Caracciolo del Sole chapel can be entered. It was built in 1427 by Sergianni Caracciolo, lover of Giovanna II and a great seneschal, who was killed in 1432 and buried in the chapel, in a carved grave built by Andrea da Firenze. The frescoes, that mostly depict hermitic and Marian anecdotes, were painted by Leonardo da Besozzo and Perrinetto da Benevento at around half of the fifteenth century; also the floor, which is covered with majolica tiles, dates back to the fifteenth century. At the left of the presbytery the Caracciolo di Vico chapel, founded in 1499 and completed in 1516, is an exceptional proof of the untimely existence in Naples of the early forms of Roman Renaissance. In the nave, facing the entrance, the monumental Miroballo altar, which is almost a chapel of its own due to the complexity of its decorations, can be found. The churchyard leads then to another Chapel, that of Seripando, where it is possible to admire the portrait “The Crucifixion” by renowned painter and architect Giorgio Vasari (1545). Returning to the staircase, one finds first the Gothic chapel of Saint Monica and then, at the staircase’s feet, the entrance to the baroque lower church of Consolazione in Carbonara, with its large altar designed by Ferdinando Sanfelice and with its sculptures by Giuseppe Sammartino.

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