The Church of the Nunziatella is a

Baroque The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...

-style church located inside the grounds of the military school of

Nunziatella The Nunziatella Military School of Naples, Italy, founded November 18, 1787 under the name of ''Royal Military Academy'' (it.: ''Reale Accademia Militare''), is the oldest Italian institution of military education among those still operating. Its b ...

, in the quartiere of San Ferdinando 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. The

Baroque style The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...

church was built in 1588 with the patronage of Anna Mendoza Marchesa della Valle, who donated the church to the Jesuits. In 1736, it was rebuilt wholly anew by the architect

Ferdinando Sanfelice Ferdinando Sanfelice (1675 – 1 April 1748) was an Italian late Baroque architect and painter. Sanfelice was born in Naples and died there. He was one of the principal architects in Naples in the first half of the 18th century. He was a stude ...

. In 1773, with the suppression of the Jesuit order, the complex was under the jurisdiction of Somaschi brothers, who established a college for sons of the

Knights of Malta The Sovereign Military Order of Malta (SMOM), officially the Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of Saint John of Jerusalem, of Rhodes and of Malta ( it, Sovrano Militare Ordine Ospedaliero di San Giovanni di Gerusalemme, di Rodi e di Malta; ...

. The next year this became the ''Royal Military College'' and the Somaschi moved to the church of Gesù Vecchio. The church since then has become the chapel of the Nunziatella Military Institute. Originally, the church was dedicated to the Virgin of the Annunciation, but popularly the church was known as the "Annunziatella" o "Nunziatella", to distinguish it from the Basilica of Santissima Annunziata Maggiore. The name passed on to the adjacent military school.

Interior

The interior of the church has a basilica plan with lateral chapels. Frescoes that depict the ''Adoration of the Magi'' in the apse and the ''Assumption of the Virgin'' in the ceiling are by are mainly by

Francesco de Mura Francesco de Mura (21 April 1696 – 19 August 1782) was an Italian painter of the late- Baroque period, active mainly in Naples and Turin. His late work reflects the style of neoclassicism. Life Francesco de Mura, also referred to as ''Fran ...

. Also in the Apse is a series of paintings depicting the ''Life of Mary'' by

Ludovico Mazzanti ''Judith and Holofernes'' 1740, Collection Motais de Narbonne Ludovico Mazzanti (5 December 1686, in Orvieto – 29 August 1775, in Viterbo) was an Italian painter. He was a follower of the school of Giovanni Battista Gaulli, known as Baciccio (d ...

, who also painted the four saints in the counterfacade. The main altar and balustrade in polychrome marble and bronze decoration (1756) was made by

Giuseppe Sanmartino Giuseppe Sanmartino or Giuseppe Sammartino (1720 – 1793) was an Italian sculptor during the Rococo period. Sanmartino was born in Naples. His first dated (1753) work is '' Veiled Christ'' or ''Christ lying under the Shroud'', commissioned initia ...

References

Bibliography

* Patrizia Di Maggio, ''Nunziatella'', Longobardi editore, 1999.

External links

Church of the Nunziatella
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nunziatella Roman Catholic churches in Naples 16th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in Italy

Interior

See also

References

Bibliography

External links