Santa Maria la Scala 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 in a Piazzetta of the same name 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 complex was built in 1054, when merchants of the town of Scala in the peninsula of

Sorrento Sorrento (, ; nap, Surriento ; la, Surrentum) is a town overlooking the Bay of Naples in Southern Italy. A popular tourist destination, Sorrento is located on the Sorrentine Peninsula at the south-eastern terminus of the Circumvesuviana rail ...

, traded with Neapolitans, thus were granted a plot which then stood outside the city walls, to erect a church complex. By the 15th century, the church stood inside the walls of the city. As trade between Naples and Scala declined, the church fell in disuse. The church was reconstructed in the 17th and 18th century as the home of various lay and religious confraternities. The interior is decorated in an elaborate

style. In the 19th century, the church was restored by the architect Francesconi. The interior was redecorated by

Lorenzo De Caro Lorenzo de Caro (baptised 29 May 1719 – 2 December 1777) was an Italian painter, active in the late Baroque style in his native city of Naples. Biography Decaro's biographical information is sparse, and many canvases refer to painter of Neapol ...

. Image:Volta scala.jpg, Main altar. Among those buried in the church are men who were faithful to the Bourbon Monarchy, and who were arrested on June 13, 1799, and the next day executed on the grounds of Capodimonte by a firing squad set up by the Neapolitan Republic of 1799. The executed were Antonio di Lieto, Carloantonio Genovese, Saverio Greco, Carmine Ruggiero, Antonio Russo, and Francesco Vigliotto. Among the interior decorations are a number of paintings from the school of Solimena. Next to the sacristy is an altarpiece depicting ''St Matthew'' by Antonio Pascucci. The canvases in the second and third chapels on the right, depicting Madonnas with ''Saints Francis and John the Baptist'', and with ''Saints Anthony and Phillip'' were painted by Nicola de Mattheis. The third chapel also has a canvas depicting the ''Resurrection'' by Paolillo, a pupil of Andrea di Salerno. The first chapel on the right has a St Anthony by the school of Massimo Stanzione.*

References

Bibliography

*Luigi Catalani, ''Le Chiese di Napoli'',

, Italy, 1845. *Gennaro Aspreno Galante, ''Le Chiese di Napoli. Guida Sacra della Città di Napoli'', Napoli, XIX secolo. {{DEFAULTSORT:Maria la Scala Naples Churches in Naples Renaissance architecture in Naples 16th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in Italy