Santa Maria della Mercede a Montecalvario (known also as the church of Montecalvario) is a church located on largo Montecalvario 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 church was founded in 1560, endowed by the Neapolitan aristocrat Ilaria D'Apuzzo, who donated the church to the

Franciscan order , image = FrancescoCoA PioM.svg , image_size = 200px , caption = A cross, Christ's arm and Saint Francis's arm, a universal symbol of the Franciscans , abbreviation = OFM , predecessor = , ...

. By the 1580s, the church is attached to the Congregation of the Immaculate Conception. In the 17th century, the church was enlarged and provided with a monumental entrance stairwell and portico with five arches. In 1677, the church underwent Baroque interior decoration by Gennaro Schiavo. In 1808, the church was closed, and turned into barracks. The portico became a marketplace designed by Stefano Gasse. The original baroque staircase was replaced by a nondescript stairway. A decade later, the Franciscans returned to the convent and restored the church. A school has been built at the site of the former college. In 1980, a

predella In art a predella (plural predelle) is the lowest part of an altarpiece, sometimes forming a platform or step, and the painting or sculpture along it, at the bottom of an altarpiece, sometimes with a single much larger main scene above, but oft ...

with a procession of the blood of

San Gennaro Januarius ( ; la, Ianuarius; Neapolitan and it, Gennaro), also known as , was Bishop of Benevento and is a martyr and saint of the Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church. While no contemporary sources on his life are preserved, lat ...

was restored and is now kept beneath the marble main altar.

The interior

The main altar and holy water fonts are from the studio of Fanzago. In the first chapel on the left is a 16th-century canvas depicting the ''Madonna of the Rosary with the Universal Judgement'' by Michele Cuira. The other chapels include paintings such as a ''Deposition'' by the school of

Giovanni Bernardo Lama Giovanni Bernardo Lama (1508–1579) was an Italian painter of the Renaissance period, active mainly in Naples. He was the son of a generally unknown artist, Matteo Lama. He was the apprentice of Giovanni Antonio D’Amato, then Polidoro da Car ...

; a triptych with the ''Annunciation and Saint Andrew and Veronica'' by the school of

Andrea Sabbatini Andrea Sabbatini (1487–1530) (var. Andrea Sabatini or Andrea da Salerno) was an Italian painter of the Renaissance. He was born in Salerno, and initially trained under Raimondo Epifanio in Naples, but move to Rome and became a close discipl ...

. Other works in the church are by Leonardo Castellani, by Giacomo da Cosenza, and followers of Beinaschi.

Bibliography

*Antonio Terraciano, Andrea Russo, ''Le chiese di Napoli. Censimento e brevi recensioni delle 448 chiese storiche della città di Napoli'', Lorenzo Giunta, Editor, 1999. *AA.VV. ''Napoli: Montecalvario questione aperta'', Clean edition, Naples, Italy.

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Maria Mercede Montecalvario Naples Churches in Naples Baroque architecture in Naples 16th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in Italy Roman Catholic churches completed in the 1560s Quartieri Spagnoli