San Paolo Maggiore is a

basilica In Ancient Roman architecture, a basilica (Greek Basiliké) was a large public building with multiple functions that was typically built alongside the town's forum. The basilica was in the Latin West equivalent to a stoa in the Greek Eas ...

church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a place/building for Christian religious activities and praying * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian comm ...

Naples Naples ( ; ; ) is the Regions of Italy, regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 908,082 within the city's administrative limits as of 2025, while its Metropolitan City of N ...

southern Italy Southern Italy (, , or , ; ; ), also known as () or (; ; ; ), is a macroregion of Italy consisting of its southern Regions of Italy, regions. The term "" today mostly refers to the regions that are associated with the people, lands or cultu ...

, and the burial place of

Saint Cajetan Gaetano dei Conti di Thiene (6 October 1480 – 7 August 1547), known in English as Saint Cajetan ( ), was an Italian Catholic priest and religious reformer, co-founder of the Theatines. He is recognised as a saint in the Catholic Church, and hi ...

, founder of the

Theatines The Theatines, officially named the Congregation of Clerics Regular (; abbreviated CR), is a Catholic order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men founded by Archbishop Gian Pietro Carafa on 14 September 1524. Foundation The order wa ...

. It is located on Piazza Gaetano, about 1-2 blocks north of

Via dei Tribunali Via dei Tribunali is a street in the old historic center of Naples, Italy. It was the main ''decumanus'' or Decumano Maggiore — that is, the main east-west street — of the ancient Greek and then Roman city of Neapolis, paralleled to the sou ...

History

The

Baroque style The Baroque ( , , ) is a Western style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished from the early 17th century until the 1750s. It followed Renaissance art and Mannerism and preceded the Rococo (i ...

church is located on the site of the 1st-century temple of the

Dioscuri Castor and Pollux (or Polydeuces) are twin half-brothers in Greek mythology, Greek and Roman mythology, known together as the Dioscuri or Dioskouroi. Their mother was Leda (mythology), Leda, but they had different fathers; Castor was the mortal ...

. The church was built upon the ruins of that temple. The church occupied the area behind the temple's

pronaos A portico is a porch leading to the entrance of a building, or extended as a colonnade, with a roof structure over a walkway, supported by columns or enclosed by walls. This idea was widely used in ancient Greece and has influenced many cultu ...

. The front section of the latter, including six columns and triangular tympanum, was visible until 1688, when it was destroyed by an earthquake. The current church includes two corinthian columns from the ancient edifice. They stand awkwardly in front, linked by a fragile beam projecting from the facade. The church erected here in the 8th-9th century was dedicated to

St. Paul Paul, also named Saul of Tarsus, commonly known as Paul the Apostle and Saint Paul, was a Christian apostle ( AD) who spread the teachings of Jesus in the first-century world. For his contributions towards the New Testament, he is generally ...

to celebrate a victory in 574 of the

Duchy of Naples The Duchy of Naples (, ) began as a Byzantine province that was constituted in the seventh century, in the lands roughly corresponding to the current province of Naples that the Lombards had not conquered during their invasion of Italy in the si ...

against pillaging

Saracens file:Erhard Reuwich Sarazenen 1486.png, upright 1.5, Late 15th-century History of Germany, German woodcut depicting Saracens ''Saracen'' ( ) was a term used both in Greek language, Greek and Latin writings between the 5th and 15th centuries to ...

.* In 1538, the building was ceded to St Cajetan and his order of

. Cajetan had been in Naples for six years working on building his order. The Theatine priest and architect Francesco Grimaldi designed the adjacent house for the order. In the early 1580s, general reconstruction of the church began with the erection of the

transept A transept (with two semitransepts) is a transverse part of any building, which lies across the main body of the building. In cruciform ("cross-shaped") cruciform plan, churches, in particular within the Romanesque architecture, Romanesque a ...

and the polygonal

apse In architecture, an apse (: apses; from Latin , 'arch, vault'; from Ancient Greek , , 'arch'; sometimes written apsis; : apsides) is a semicircular recess covered with a hemispherical Vault (architecture), vault or semi-dome, also known as an ' ...

. This was followed by the nave built by Gian Battista Cavagni. The aisles, designed by Giovan Giacomo di Conforto, date from 1625 onwards. As the building was proceeding, it was decorated and embellished, notably by

Massimo Stanzione Massimo Stanzione (also called Stanzioni; Frattamaggiore 1585 – Naples 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 ...

who painted the nave ceiling with a series of canvases depicting events in the life of St Paul. On the occasion of the canonization of the Order's founder, St. Cajetan, Dionisio Lazzaro unsuccessfully connected the façade with the temple's columns with a wall, causing the building to crumble in 1688. The decoration continued in the 18th century with, among others,

Domenico Antonio Vaccaro Domenico Antonio Vaccaro (June 3, 1678 – June 13, 1745) was an Italian painter, sculptor and architect. He created many important sculptural and architectural projects in Naples. His later works are executed in an individualistic Rococo s ...

and

Francesco Solimena Francesco Solimena (4 October 1657 – 3 April 1747) was a prolific Italian Baroque painter, one of an established family of painters and draughtsmen. Biography Francesco Solimena was born in Canale di Serino in the province of Avellino. H ...

, who re-used marble elements from the ancient edifice for the new pavement and the pilasters of the nave. The church was severely damaged by an Allied bombing in 1943, which caused the nearly total destruction of Massimo Stanzione's frescoes.

Interior

The interior is on the Latin cross plan. The nave has remains of Stanzione's frescoes depicting ''Histories of Sts. Paul and Peter''. Other frescoes by

can be seen in the

sacristy A sacristy, also known as a vestry or preparation room, is a room in Christianity, Christian churches for the keeping of vestments (such as the alb and chasuble) and other church furnishings, sacred vessels, and parish records. The sacristy is us ...

. In the nave there is also a statue of the ''Guardian Angel'' (1712) by

. Notable, especially for their marble decorations, are the Chapels of Firrao di Sant'Agata and the Madonna della Purità, both dating from the 17th centuries. The main altar was sculpted in 1775-1776 to a design by

Ferdinando Fuga Ferdinando Fuga (11 November 1699 – 7 February 1782) was an Italian architect who was born in Florence, and is known for his work in Rome and Naples. Much of his early work was in Rome, notably, the Palazzo della Consulta (1732–7) at the Quir ...

Cloister

The cloister was built during the Theatine reconstruction of the late 16th century, occupying the former pagan temple. The vestibule uses columns taken from the former Palaeo-Christian church; the cloister itself has a square plan with, in its center, a well supported by small columns. The frescoes on the walls, one of which was attributed to

Aniello Falcone Aniello Falcone or Ancillo Falcone' (15 November 16001656) was an Italian Baroque painter, active in Naples and noted for his painted depictions of battle scenes. Biography Born in Naples to a tradesman, he showed his artistic tendency at an ea ...

, have disappeared.

Photo gallery

Image:Remnants of the Templo of the Dioscuri - San Paolo Maggiore - Naples - Italy 2015.JPG, Detail of a Corinthian column Image:NapoliSanPaoloMaggioreParticolareScalinata.jpg, Detail of the main exterior staircase Image:NapoliSanPaoloMaggioreIngressoLaterale.jpg, The side stairway Image:San Paolo Maggiore, navata 2012.jpg, The central nave Image:Paolo_Maggiore3.jpg, Interior detail Image:13 - palladio capitello 1570.JPG, Architectural details from the Temple of the Dioscuri from Andrea Palladio, ''Four Books on Architecture'', Venice 1570. Image:Chiesa San Paolo Maggiore - Tempio dei Dioscuri (Celano 1692).jpg, The facade of San Paolo Maggiore before and after the collapse of 1688 (from Celano 1692) Image:Domenico Antonio Vaccaro-Angelo.jpg, Angel statue by Vaccaro Image:BasilicaSanPaoloMaggioreFergola.jpg, Burial monument of the Italian mathematician

Nicola Fergola Nicola Fergola (29 October 175321 June 1824) was an Italian mathematician, professor in the university of Naples. Life and work Fergola studied in the Jesuit school; he then went to the university of Naples in 1767, where he studied mathemati ...

(1753-1828)

References

Sources

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External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Paolo Maggiore Naples 16th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in Italy Basilica churches in Naples Baroque architecture in Naples Theatine churches