CHIESA DI SAN DOMENICO MAGGIORE

In 1283, King Charles of Anjou inaugurated the construction of the church, which includes an old sanctuary from the early Middle Ages dedicated to Saint Michael the Archangel (its portal, rebuilt in the 14th century, is visible to the left of the chevet, at the top of the stairs). From the 15th to the 19th century, successive alterations modified its original appearance until a radical restoration in the neo-gothic style. It has an imposing interior with a Latin cross and three naves. The side aisles are flanked by chapels with beautiful frescoes and splendid funerary monuments. The Brancaccio Chapel, in particular, preserves a cycle of frescoes by Pietro Cavallini, an important Roman painter of the early 14th century, contemporary of the Florentines Cimabue and Giotto and who, like the latter, was interested in the representation of space and the human figure. These are, moreover, the only frescoes in the church dating back to the Angevin period and therefore to the construction of the building. Several members of the House of Aragon are also buried here. King Alfonso I of Aragon himself was buried here, until his remains were transferred to Spain two centuries later. The old church on the right houses the oldest known portrait of St Dominic (early 13th century). The adjacent Museo Doma organises guided tours that include access to the sacristy, whose vault is decorated with the Triumph of Faith, a grandiose fresco by Francesco Solimena.