San Gennaro dei Poveri is a former monastery and church complex, later converted into a hospital for indigent located on Via San Gennaro dei Poveri #25 in the Rione Sanità, of the city of

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 elongated complex rises towards Capodimonte, lying just south of the domed Basilica dell'Incoronata Madre del Buon Consiglio.

History

Originally, the site housed a paleo-christian church, putatively erected at the site of an Ancient Roman temple dedicated to Vulcan. Supposedly the then Bishop of Naples, later St Severus of Naples (died 409), transferred the venerated relics of St

Januarius 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, later ...

, to a church of

San Gennaro extra Moenia San Gennaro Extra moenia, extra Moenia ("San Gennaro Beyond the Walls") is a church in Naples, Italy. It is located in the Rione Sanita on the large road that leads up to the Museo Nazionale di Capodimonte, Capodimonte museum and is an example of s ...

(San Gennaro outside the walls) located on the northernmost corner of the complex. Over the following centuries, these relics were divided and moved till they were putatively collected in the Cathedral of San Gennaro in central Naples. By the early 9th century, a Benedictine monastery with an attached hospital was founded here under the government of Archbishop

Athanasius I Athanasius I may refer to: * Athanasius of Alexandria (c. 293 – 373), also called Pope Athanasius I of Alexandria, Christian theologian * Athanasius I Gammolo (died 631), Syriac Patriarch of Antioch * Athanasius I (bishop of Naples) (830–872) * ...

. The late 9th-century Archbishop and Duke of Naples,

Athanasius of Naples Athanasius (died 898) was the Bishop (as Athanasius II) and Duke of Naples from 878 to his death. He was the son of Gregory III and brother of Sergius II, whom he blinded and deposed in order to seize the throne while he was already bishop. In ...

, moved the body of his uncle and namesake from the Abbey of Montecassino to this church. By the 15th century, dissensions within the monastery led to its dissolution, and in 1468 the Cardinal

Oliviero Carafa Oliviero Carafa (10 March 1430 – 20 January 1511), in Latin Oliverius Carafa, was an Italian cardinal and diplomat of the Renaissance. Like the majority of his era's prelates, he displayed the lavish and conspicuous standard of living that was ...

formulated the building into a hospital funded by various neighborhoods. After the plague of 1656, the hospital was expanded and by 1669 the viceroy Pietro Antonio of Aragon, seeking to move much of the indigent handicapped individuals () out of the city center, converted the hospital into a hospice for the poor. As such, was the first hospice for the poor in Naples, and remained the major such site until the 1750s, when the much more ambitious project of the Royal Hospice for the Poor was built. San Gennaro still functions as a hospital.

Architecture

The narrow four story façade, rising across from the Parco di San Gennaro, with statue filled niches above a large rounded portal leads into an elongated courtyard flanked by parallel wings. The façade statues, including those of St Peter and St Januarius by

Cosimo Fanzago Cosimo Fanzago (Clusone, 12 October 1591 – Napoli, 13 February 1678) was an Italian architect and sculptor, generally considered the greatest such artist of the Baroque period in Naples, Italy. Facade Santa Maria della Sapienza. Biography Fanz ...

. At the north end of the courtyard is the former church of San Gennaro extra Moenia. The former church is used now for exhibitions.Comune of Naples
entry on church.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gennaro Dei Poveri, Naples Hospitals in Naples Churches in Naples 1667 establishments in the Kingdom of Naples Religious organizations established in the 1660s Catholic organizations established in the 17th century Rione Sanità