Santa Maria Donnregina Nuova is a church in central

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 ...

. It is called ''Nuova'' ("new") to distinguish it from the older Angevin church of

Santa Maria Donna Regina Vecchia Santa Donna Regina Vecchia is a church in Naples, in southern Italy. It is called ''Vecchia'' ("old") to distinguish it from the newer and adjacent church of Santa Maria Donna Regina Nuova. The earliest mention of a church on this site is from t ...

History

The earliest church was built on this location in the 14th century. The nuns from the adjacent monastery commissioned the new structure. While traditionally the architect Giovanni Guarino, a pupil of Francesco Grimaldi was cited as the architect of the present Baroque church, more recent documentation cites Giovanni Giacomo Conforto. The first documented payments for design were from 1626, which is also when the facade was completed. The marble portal was completed by Bernardino Landini in 1634, and the cupola in 1654. The church was consecrated in 1669. Among the architects that over the next century worked designs for parts of the structure include Arcangelo Guglielmelli and

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 ...

. The convent was shut down in the 1861, and the Clarisse nuns moved to the monastery of Santa Chiara.Museo Diocesano di Napoli
, Museum of architecture. Since 2007 the church has housed the

Diocesan Museum A diocesan museum is a museum for an ecclesiastical diocese, a geographically-based division of the Christian Church. Austria: * Diocesan Museum, Graz, Styria * Gurk Treasury, Carinthia * Diocesan Museum, Linz, Upper Austria * Cathedral Mus ...

. Originally the monastery and the church were connected by a passage between the tribune of the new church and the apse of the old one, but this was eliminated by the 1928-1934 restoration. The façade presents a wide 17th-century staircase, and houses two stucco statues portraying Saints

Andrew Andrew is the English form of a given name common in many countries. In the 1990s, it was among the top ten most popular names given to boys in List of countries where English is an official language, English-speaking countries. "Andrew" is freq ...

and

Bartholomew Bartholomew (Aramaic: ; grc, Βαρθολομαῖος, translit=Bartholomaîos; la, Bartholomaeus; arm, Բարթողիմէոս; cop, ⲃⲁⲣⲑⲟⲗⲟⲙⲉⲟⲥ; he, בר-תולמי, translit=bar-Tôlmay; ar, بَرثُولَماو� ...

. The interior has a single nave with six side chapels and a rich Baroque marble decoration. The ceiling has a large fresco (1654) by Francesco de Benedictis. The sides of the apse have frescoes by Francesco Solimena portraying histories of St Francis. In the first chapel on the right are frescoes by Antonio Guastaferro; the second chapel has frescoes on the wall and ceiling by Tommaso Fasano; the third chapel has marble decoration by Gaetano Sacco based on a design by Giovan Domenico Vinaccia and frescoes by Fasano and Solimena. In the first chapel on the left are canvases by Charles Mellin; In the other chapels are the left are more paintings by Fasano. The altar was built by Giovanni Ragozzino based on a design by Solimena; it is flanked by an altarpiece by

Luca Giordano Luca Giordano (18 October 1634 – 3 January 1705) was an Italian late-Baroque painter and printmaker in etching. Fluent and decorative, he worked successfully in Naples and Rome, Florence, and Venice, before spending a decade in Spain. Earl ...

. The dome was frescoed by Agostino Beltrano. The ante-sacristy was decorated with stucco and frescoes by Santolo Cirillo. The sacristy has paintings by

Massimo Stanzione Massimo Stanzione (also called Stanzioni; 1585 – 1656) was an Italian Baroque painter, mainly active in Naples, where he and his rival Jusepe de Ribera dominated the painting scene for several decades. He was primarily a painter of altarpiece ...

and Charles Mellin, and two still-lifes from the 16th century.

References

Sources

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Maria Donnaregina Nuova Former churches in Naples Baroque architecture in Naples 17th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in Italy Burial sites of the Capetian House of Anjou