A stone’s throw away from “VistaViva” there is a monumental church of unique beauty: Santa Caterina a Formiello. The name of this church is due to its proximity to the “Royal Formale” and it is part of a monumental complex that bears the same name, an incredible place that contains a thousand others, whose history is lost between incomplete and ongoing reconstructions. This large monumental complex originates from this very church, which was built in the sixteenth century in Piazza Enrico De Nicola, very close to one of the most ancient gates of the city, “Porta Capuana”, and Castel Capuano. Santa Caterina a Formiello was built on a previous and smaller church dedicated to Saint Catherine of Alexandria: this smaller church was built at the end of the fifteenth century together with the adjoining convent entrusted to the Celestine friars. Ever since its foundation, Santa Caterina a Formiello has kept the relics of the Martyrs of Otranto, killed by the Turks on 14 August 1480 for refusing to deny their faith: Alfonso II King of Naples decided to keep their bodies first in the church of Santa Maria Maddalena and then, after the nuns’ return, in the ancient church of Santa Caterina. The connotation “A formiello” derives from the Latin “ad formis”, that is “near the ducts”, since in the place where the church was built stood a well which was part of the ancient aqueduct of Bolla, permanently replaced at the end of the nineteenth century by the new Serino aqueduct. In 1499, King Frederick of Aragon granted the church of Santa Caterina to the Dominican fathers of the Reformed Congregation of Lombardy, who rebuilt it and held it until 1806, when the monastery was abolished by will of Gioacchino Murat. In 1815, at the behest of new King Ferdinando of the Two Sicilies, great part of the monastery was readapted to new uses, including that of military mill. The church suffered serious damage due to Irpinia earthquake in 1980, but was since restored. The church you see today was therefore built at the beginning of the sixteenth century on a project of architect Antonio della Cava and executed by architect Romolo Balsimelli: the first element to be completed, in 1514, was the great monastery’s cloister. The funds for the construction works were raised by several noble Neapolitan families, among which the Acquaviva d’Atri, the Sanseverino di Bisignano and the Spinelli di Cariati. Between 1706 and 1708 on the churchyard the shrine of San Gennaro, whose bust was the work of Domenico Antonio Vaccaro, was constructed. On the floor, at the center of the church, stands a trapdoor, through which it is possible to access the crypt of the Holy Rosary confraternity; going down into the crypt, it is still possible to see the skeletons of the Confraternity nuns holding rosaries in their hands. Along with the nearby church of San Giovanni a Carbonara, Santa Caterina a Formiello is one of the most beautiful churches in Naples, and both were considered very important worship places in the city from the fifteenth century onwards.

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