The Basilica of Santa Maria della Sanità is a basilica church located over the Catacombs of San Gaudioso, on a Piazza near where Via Sanità meets Via Teresa degli Scalzi, in the Rione of the Sanità, in

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 ...

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

. The church is also called San Vincenzo or San Vincenzo della Sanità, due to the cult of an icon of San Vincenzo Ferrer, also called locally O' Monacone (the big monk).

History

The church was originally attached to a Dominican monastery founded in 1577. The church was built in a centralized Greek-cross plan from 1602 to 1613 using the architectural designs of Giuseppe Nuvolo. The main altar is elevated and accessed via flanking

Baroque The Baroque ( , , ) is a Western Style (visual arts), style of Baroque architecture, architecture, Baroque music, music, Baroque dance, dance, Baroque painting, painting, Baroque sculpture, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished from ...

-style spiraling staircases, all sheathed in polychrome marble. The entrance to the crypt or

catacombs Catacombs are man-made underground passages primarily used for religious purposes, particularly for burial. Any chamber used as a burial place is considered a catacomb, although the word is most commonly associated with the Roman Empire. Etym ...

is beneath the altar, which was elevated above the site of the original chapel at the site. On the left of the nave is an elevated polychrome marble pulpit, designed by Dionisi Lazzari. The crypt, once site of a paleochristian chapel, was supposedly the burial site for San Gaudioso, a bishop of North Africa. The crypt has ten shallow altars surmounted by frescoes by

Bernardino Fera Bernardino is a name of Italian, Hispanic, or Portuguese origin. Notable people with the name include: Given name *Bernardino of Fossa (1420–1503), Italian Franciscan historian and ascetical writer *Bernardino of Siena (1380–1444), Italian ...

. The interior of the upper church and chapels are decorated by painters such as: *

Giovanni Balducci Giovanni Balducci, called Il Cosci after his maternal uncle, (c. 1560 — after 1630) was an Italian mannerist painter. Biography Born in Florence, Balducci was trained by Giovanni Battista Naldini. Under the guidance and supervision of Vasar ...

(''St Peter Martyr'' in right 2nd chapel) *

Giovanni Bernardino Azzolini Giovanni Bernardino Azzolini (c. 1572 – 12 December 1645) was an Italian painter and sculptor who continued painting in a late-Mannerism, Mannerist style, mainly active in Naples and Genoa. He is also known by Azzolino or Mazzolini or Asoleni. ...

(''Virgin of the Rosary'' and a ''Condemnation of the Albigensian Heretics'' in the large chapel and an ''Annuciation'' in 3rd chapel on the left), *

Andrea Vaccaro Andrea Vaccaro (baptised on 8 May 1604 – 18 January 1670) was an Italian painter of the Baroque period. Vaccaro was in his time one of the most successful painters in Naples, a city then under Spanish rule. Very successful and valued in his li ...

(''Marriage of St Catherine'' in right 4th chapel and ''St Catherine of Siena receives Stigmata'' in right 5th chapel) *

Girolamo de Magistro Girolamo may refer to: * Girolamo (given name) * Girolamo (surname) Girolamo is a surname of Italian origin that may refer to: * Claudia di Girolamo (1956–), Chilean actress * Diego De Girolamo (1995–), English footballer * Elena Di Girolam ...

(''Santa Lucia'' left large chapel) *

Giovanni Vincenzo Forli Giovanni Vincenzo Forli (c. 1580 in Forlì del Sannio – c. 1625) was an Italian painter of the Baroque period, active in Naples. In 1607–1608, he painted a ''Good Samaritan'' for the Church of Pio Monte della Misericordia, where Caravaggio ha ...

(''Circumcision'' in large chapel on left) *

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, Rome, Florence, and Venice, before spending a decade in Spain. Early l ...

(''San Nicola with saints Ambrose and Ludovico Beltrando below'' in the first chapel on the right, ''Sermon of San Vicenzo'' in right 3rd chapel beside the original 5th century icon; also painted ''Virgin with St Rosa'' in left 2nd chapel, and a ''St Hyacinth a cui porge una scritta "gaude fliimi hyacinte"''. He also painted a ''St Pius V with Dominican Saints'') *

Pacecco de Rosa Pacecco De Rosa (byname of Giovanni Francesco De Rosa; 17 December 1607 - 1656) was an Italian painter, active in Naples. Biography He was a contemporary of Massimo Stanzione or, according to others, a pupil of him. De Rosa was influenced by his ...

(St. Thomas of Aquino) *

Gaspare Traversi Gaspare Traversi (February 1722 – 1 November 1770) was an Italian Rococo painter best known for his genre works. Active mostly in his native city of Naples, he also painted throughout Italy, including a stay in Parma. Biography Early ...

(ovals in 3rd chapel on left) *

Agostino Beltrano Agostino Beltrano (between 1614 and 1618 – 1665) was an Italian painter active in the Baroque period in his native city of Naples. He was a pupil of Massimo Stanzione, the uncle of his wife, and is known to have been active in 1646. He is said ...

and his wife

Aniella de Rosa Aniella di Beltrano (1613–1649), also known as Diana de Rosa or Anniella di Rosa, was an Italian woman painter of the Baroque period, active in Naples Naples ( ; ; ) is the Regions of Italy, regional capital of Campania and the third-lar ...

(San Raimondo da Pennafort in first chapel on left) *Also works by

Anna Maria Bova Anna may refer to: People Surname and given name * Anna (name) Mononym * Anna the Prophetess, in the Gospel of Luke * Anna of East Anglia, King (died c.654) * Anna (wife of Artabasdos) (fl. 715–773) * Anna (daughter of Boris I) (9th–10th c ...

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 ...

Giovanni Pisani Giovanni may refer to: * Giovanni (name), an Italian male given name and surname * Giovanni (meteorology), a Web interface for users to analyze NASA's gridded data * ''Don Giovanni'', a 1787 opera by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, based on the legend of ...

, and Filippo Donzelli. The original church was connected to the veneration of San Gaudioso, a bishop of Abitina in the Roman province of Africa, who died in Naples in c.451 after being set adrift from the north African coast by the Vandal King

Genseric Gaiseric ( – 25 January 477), also known as Geiseric or Genseric (; reconstructed Vandalic: ) was king of the Vandals and Alans from 428 to 477. He ruled over a kingdom and played a key role in the decline of the Western Roman Empire during ...

. In the 1500s, a 6th-century image of the Madonna and Child was uncovered here, and led to the establishment of this church. The marble pulpit dates from 1677 to 1705. The organ, now in disuse, dates from the early 1700s. Entry in Churches of Naples
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References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Maria Sanita, Naples Basilica churches in Naples Roman Catholic churches completed in 1613 17th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in Italy Church buildings with domes Rione Sanità 1613 establishments in Italy