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BASILICA DI SANTA CHIARA

Church – Cathedral – Basilica – Chapel €€
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Via Santa Chiara, 49C, Naples, Italy
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+39 081 551 6673
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2024
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2024

The basilica houses the tombs of the House of Anjou and the most beautiful cloister in the city, entirely decorated with majolica.

The Franciscan monastery was built in 1310 by order of King Robert of Anjou and his very devout wife Sancia de Mallorca. The religious complex then consisted of the Basilica of Santa Chiara and two convents, that of the Poor Clares and that of the Franciscan Friars Minor.

The basilica. Built in 1310 in the Gothic style by Gagliardo Primario, the basilica became the pantheon of the House of Anjou in Naples; several funerary monuments of the XIV century can still be admired there. In the eighteenth century it was profoundly remodelled under the direction of the architect Domenico Vaccaro, who gave it a Baroque face in keeping with the tastes of the time. Destroyed by the bombings of August 4, 1943, the basilica was rebuilt under the direction of Mario Zampino, respecting the original Gothic style. Note the massive and sober façade, decorated with a rose window and preceded by a pronaos with three pointed arches. Inside, the nave is high and vast, with a bare nave flanked by ten side chapels on each side. Numerous carved funerary monuments, the most notable of which are the royal tombs at the back of the building. In the centre, the funerary monument of Robert d'Anjou, a work of the Bertini brothers, Florentine sculptors. Today fragmentary, it was the most imposing tomb of the whole peninsula in the Middle Ages. On the left, the tomb of Maria Durazzo and, on the right, two funerary monuments by the Sienese sculptor Tino di Camaino: the tomb of Charles the Duke of Calabria and that of his wife Maria de Valois. On the counterfaçade and at the entrance to the presbytery there are some remains of 14th century frescoes, which show Giotto's influence on Neapolitan painters. At the back of the presbytery, the choir of the Poor Clares (unfortunately not open to the public) preserves fragments of frescoes attributed to Giotto himself; he was, in fact, called in 1326 to decorate the walls of the building.

The religious complex. The entrance is at the back of the basilica, on Via Santa Chiara. First you reach the magnificent cloister of the Poor Clares. The alleys of its garden are flanked by benches and octagonal pillars entirely covered with 18th century majolica (30,000 tiles!). The harmony of the tones of yellow, green and blue was intended to match the colours of the environment: the yellow of the lemons, the green of the wisteria, the blue of the sky. While the pillars bear vegetal motifs, the backs of the benches are illustrated with joyful scenes of daily life: work in the vegetable garden, scenes of country life, the sea, parties with dances and masked figures (attention: it is forbidden to sit on them!), secular themes which were to remind the cloistered sisters of life outside the convent. Only one scene features a nun: she is busy feeding the cats in the cloister. As for the ambulatory, it is entirely covered with 17th century frescoes depicting Franciscan stories. The Museo dell'Opera di Santa Chiara is at the back of the cloister. It retraces the life and history of the monastery, as well as that of Naples during the Angevin domination. There are many 14th century sculptures, including fragments of tombs, a pulpit and a long bas-relief frieze that adorned the basilica and survived its bombing in 1943. From the museum you can also access the archaeological area with the remains of a Roman thermal building from the 1st century AD.


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Members' reviews on BASILICA DI SANTA CHIARA

4.4/5
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Visited in december 2023
Magnifique cloitre
L'église est assez austère avec des tombeaux de la dynastie Anjou; Le cloître avec ses peintures et ses faïences vaut le déplacement à l'écart du bruit de la ville
saïga
Visited in october 2019
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Sépulture royale
La basilique peut sembler assez froide et monumentale dans le cœur de Naples, mais son histoire explique l'apparat qui s'en dégage: c'est le St Denis napolitain; le lieu des sépultures royales ...
Il faut ensuite prendre le temps de flâner dans le reste du couvent ouvert au public.
Mille facettes de l'art napolitain.
Joan_Nick
Visited in october 2019
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Une "oasis" qui vaut le détour dans Naples exubérante
Le complexe monumental de S. Chiara a été construit entre 1310 et 1328 par la volonté du roi Robert D'Anjou et de son épouse, Sancia di Maiorca.
Il comprend l’église gothique (Ostia Santa ou Sacré Corps du Christ, puis Santa Chiara), le monastère et couvent. Le but était de construire une citadelle franciscaine pour abriter les sœurs Clarisses du monastère et les Frères Mineurs du couvent.
Le cloître de Santa Chiara, réaménagé au XVIIe siècle, comporte des murets et des piliers couverts de majoliques, c’est-à-dire des faïences, d’inspiration champêtre ou marine. Outre la beauté de ces faïences, l’ensemble apporte un charme fou à ce cloître par son harmonie, et le calme d’une oasis en pleine ville.
Les fresques couvrent les murs des quatre côtés du cloître et représentent des allégories, des scènes de l'Ancien Testament et des saints.
Détruite par les bombardements de 1943, la basilique a été reconstruite dans le respect du style gothique originel, ce qui donne une haute et vaste nef dépouillée avec dix chapelles latérales. (nef unique et son chœur - longueur 130 mètres, hauteur 40 mètres). Le Tombeau de Robert Ier est imposant.
Juuulie59
Visited in may 2019
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Un lieu riche en histoire
La basilique est simple mais il s'agit d'un lieu riche en histoire. Si vous avez un peu de temps, je vous conseille de visiter le cloître attenant a la basilique.
Pour 6€, vous admirerez le jardin et les majoliques. C'est magnifique!
Manej
Visited in december 2018
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Superbe endroit très particulier avec son cloître tout en fresque et faïence.
Réduction avec la Campania ArteCard.

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