Santa Caterina a Formiello is a 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 ...

, in southern Italy, located at the extreme eastern end of the old historic center of the city, on Via Carbonara and Piazza Enrico de Nicola, near the gate called

Porta Capuana The Porta Capuana is an ancient city gate in Naples, Italy. The gate also gives name to the zone, which is one of the ten boroughs of Naples. This zone being part of the Fourth Municipality. In spite of the name, the portal is not the ancien ...

. The term ''Formiello'' comes from the forms or containers for water spouts found in the convent. Diagonally across the street and South is the Fontana del Formiello against the rear wall of the imposing

Castel Capuano Castel Capuano is a castle in Naples, southern Italy. It takes its name from the fact that it was at that point in the city walls where the road led out to the city of Capua. The castle is at the southwest end of via dei Tribunali, and until re ...

History

Construction of the church began about 1510, designed by the Florentine Antonio della Cava, and completed in 1593. The church was one of the first domes in Naples, and was dedicated to the virgin and martyred Saint of

Alexandria Alexandria ( or ; ar, ٱلْإِسْكَنْدَرِيَّةُ ; grc-gre, Αλεξάνδρεια, Alexándria) is the second largest city in Egypt, and the largest city on the Mediterranean coast. Founded in by Alexander the Great, Alexandri ...

. It was attached to an ancient convent originally linked to the Celestine order and which passed to the Dominican fathers after 1498. The convent hosted Dominicans until the 19th century, when it was expropriated, and ultimately became used as a wool factory. The church has a single-aisle

Latin cross A Latin cross or ''crux immissa'' is a type of cross in which the vertical beam sticks above the crossbeam, with the three upper arms either equally long or with the vertical topmost arm shorter than the two horizontal arms, and always with a mu ...

interior covered by a barrel vault with five chapels on either side. The Roman

Mannerist Mannerism, which may also be known as Late Renaissance, is a style in European art that emerged in the later years of the Italian High Renaissance around 1520, spreading by about 1530 and lasting until about the end of the 16th century in Ita ...

painter,

Luigi Garzi Luigi Garzi (1638 – 1721) was an Italian painter of the Baroque period, whose work displayed heavy influences of the Bolognese painter, Guido Reni. Biography Born in Pistoia. He started learning from a poorly known landscape painter, Salomo ...

, painted the large picture on the counterfacade. He also painted the triangles above the arches of the chapels, the corbels of the dome, and the great vault of the nave. The dome was painted by

Paolo de Matteis Paolo de Matteis (also known as ''Paolo de' Matteis''; 9 February 1662 – 26 January 1728) was an Italian painter. Biography He was born in Piano Vetrale, a hamlet of Orria, in the current Province of Salerno, and died in Naples. He trained wit ...

. The ceilings of the chapels have frescoes by

Guglielmo Borremans Guglielmo Borremans or Guglielmo Fiamingo (1670–1744) was a Flemish painter whose documented career took principally place in Italy, in particular Naples, Cosenza and Sicily. Here he was one of the pre-eminent late-Baroque fresco painters of th ...

; the choir decorations and painting were by Gaetano Brandi. The main altar was commissioned by the Spinelli family of Cariati, to whom also belong the tombs that encircle it. The funereal monuments were completed by Scilla and Giannotto, two Milanese sculptors. On the wall, beside the altar is a ''Virgin with St Thomas Acquinas'' by

Francesco Curia Francesco Curia (1538–1610) was an Italian painter of the Renaissance period, active mainly in his hometown of Naples. He was the son of the painter Michele Curia. He was a pupil of the painter Giovanni Filippo Criscuolo. Among his pupils were ...

. A chapel on the other side has a canvas of ''St Dominic defeats the Albigensian Heretics'' by Giacomo del Po: the statues are by Columbo Napolitano.Luigi d' Afflitto, page 121. In the first chapel, all the paintings dedicated to ''St Catherine of Alessandria'' are by Giacomo del Po, the ''Visitation'' was painted by Garzi. In the next chapel, the chapel of St James, are collected the remains of 240

Martyrs of Otranto The Martyrs of Otranto, also known as Saints Antonio Primaldo and his Companions ( it, I Santi Antonio Primaldo e compagni martiri), were 813 inhabitants of the Salentine city of Otranto in southern Italy who were killed on 14 August 1480 when ...

, that Alfonso II of Aragon had moved to Naples in 1574. The canvas of the ''Epiphany'' was painted by Silvestro Buono, and the ''Circumcision'' was completed by

. The ''Conversion of St. Paul'' was painted by Marco da Siena. The ''St Vincenzo Ferreri'' was painted by Santolo Cirillo.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Caterina a Formiello Churches in Naples Renaissance architecture in Naples 16th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in Italy Roman Catholic churches completed in 1593 Church buildings with domes