San Lorenzo Maggiore offers an extraordinary slice of the history of Naples, embracing a broad time span 25 centuries long, from the Greco-Roman era right up until the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
Built for will of the Angevine Charles II between the end of the XIII and the beginnings of the XIV century, where once there was an early Christian church, it is an extraordinary example of French gothic style in Naples. Renovated in baroque style in the XVII and in the XVIII century, the nineteenth century restorations brought the Gothic style back.
Ferdinando Sanfelice’s façade dates back to 1742 and preserves the original fourteenth century marble portal. The plan is latin-cross with one nave, with a trussed covering and columns to sustain the pointed arches and the side chapels. The polygonal apse with cross vaults and radial chapels enlightned by high windows with two or three openings is very interesting.
There are also many artworks of great artistic value such as the Sepolcro di Caterina d’Austria with Tino da Camaino’s sculptures (1323) and Cappellone di S. Antonio a baroque work of Cosimo Fanzago (1638).
).jpg) |
| San Ludovico di Tolosa che incorona il fratello Roberto d'Angiò, tempera su tavola, 138x200 cm (Simone Martini (1285–1344)) |
Outside, near the church, there is the fourteenth century belfry and the Friar’s Convent that includes a seventeenth century cloister, the Sala Capitolare frescoed by Luigi Rodriguez (1608) and the refectory. Under the Basilica and the Convent it is possible to visit a vast archaeological area of greek-romanic age and in particular the ruins of the macellum, the ancient marketplace.
