The church of the Graziella al Porto Napoli or Santa Maria delle Grazie al Porto Napoli is a small

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy * Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD * Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a let ...

church in

Naples Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

. The church is just behind the church of Pietà dei Turchini, on vico Graziella al Porto. It is accessible through narrow alleys from via Medina, along the church of San Diego all'Ospedaletto and the former Royal Conservatory, but also by pedestrian alleys from via Guglielmo San Felice and via De Pretis. It is located in the

rione A (; plural: ) is a neighbourhood in several Italian cities. A is a territorial subdivision. The larger administrative subdivisions in Rome are the , with the being used only in the historic centre. The word derives from the Latin , the 14 su ...

San Giuseppe Carità. In 1737, the architect

Angelo Carasale Angelo Carasale (died 1742) was an Italian architect, active mainly in Naples. He held the primary responsibility for designing the elaborate furnishings of the Teatro di San Carlo, which was the new opera house in Naples in 1737. Alexandre Dumas ...

, in order to signal his gratitude to the providence granted by the Virgin, decided to erect this church, initially named Santa Maria delle Grazie. Carasale had found success when he was granted direction of the

Teatro San Bartolomeo Theatres for diverse musical and dramatic presentations began to open in Naples, Italy, in the mid-16th century as part of the general Spanish cultural and political expansion into the kingdom of Naples, which had just become a vicerealm of Spain. ...

by King Charles III. The church was in the custody of the

Mercedarian order The Royal, Celestial and Military Order of Our Lady of Mercy and the Redemption of the Captives ( la, Ordo Beatae Mariae de Mercede Redemptionis Captivorum, abbreviated O. de M.), also known as the Mercedarians, is a Catholic mendicant order es ...

until 1801, when it was transferred to the Confraternity of Santi Bernardo e Margherita. That group merged in 1859 with the Confraternity of Santa Maria Visita Poveri. Since the

1980 Irpinia earthquake The 1980 Irpinia earthquake ( it, Terremoto dell'Irpinia) took place in Italy on 23 November 1980, with a moment magnitude of 6.9 and a maximum Mercalli intensity of X (''Extreme''). It left at least 2,483 people dead, at least 7,700 injured, an ...

the church has remained closed, like many other nearby churches including Santa Barbara dei Cannonieri and San Giacomo degli Italiani. The main altar has a canvas of the ''Virgin granting a banner to San Pietro Nolasco'' by

Giuseppe Bonito Giuseppe Bonito (11 January 1707 – 9 May 1789) was a Neapolitan painter of the Rococo period. Giuseppe Bonito is known for genre depictions on canvas. Many of Gaspare Traversi's paintings had previously been attributed to Bonito. Biograph ...

and two lateral canvases ''Madonna and San Carlo Borromeo'' also by Bonito, and a ''Crucifixion'' by M. Rossi.Chiesa della Graziella al Porto Napoli
in Storiacity website, by Antonio Malafronte e Mariolino Merolla contributi per la micro urbanistica napoletana - 21 novembre, 2013. San Pietro Nolasco was the founder of the Mercedarian order.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Graziella al Porto Naples Former churches in Naples 18th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in Italy Baroque architecture in Naples Roman Catholic churches completed in 1737 1737 establishments in Europe