CHIESA DEL GESÙ NUOVO

The church was erected in the 16th century by the Jesuits in place of the Sanseverino Palace, from which it has preserved the curious Renaissance façade made of blocks of piperno (a volcanic stone) cut into diamond points. Between the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries the building underwent important works following a fire and an earthquake that caused the collapse of the original dome. It has a majestic interior in Baroque style, in the shape of a Greek cross, with three naves flanked by side chapels. The polychrome marble, stucco and precious paintings compete with each other in brilliance: indeed, the greatest sculptors, painters and marble masons active in Naples from the 17th to the 19th century left works here for the glory of God and the Jesuits. On the counterfaçade, a large fresco by Francesco Solimena illustrates the episode of Heliodorus driven out of the temple (a theme represented two centuries earlier by Raphael in the Vatican Chambers in Rome). Sculptures by Cosimo Fanzago and paintings by Luca Giordano and Jusepe de Ribera depicting scenes from the lives of St. Francis Xavier (a Jesuit missionary) and St. Ignatius of Loyola (the founder of the Society of Jesus). The presbytery is grandiose, with an alabaster balustrade and a vault decorated with beautiful 17th century frescoes. Linger also on the superb high altar (19th century). In the back on the left of the church, note the two lipanotheques, relic cupboards each containing 35 busts of saints carved in wood.