Una chapel as a vow to the patron saint of Napoli to free the city from the bad luck that was going crazy in the sixteenth century. La war, the plagues and the whims of Vesuviusin fact, they were bringing the citizens to their knees who asked for help from their main point of reference, San Gennaro. That was how it was decided to make it happen a new place dedicated to him inside the cathedral. It is only the beginning of the history of Royal chapel of the Treasure of San Gennaro.
Built to invoke the help of the Saint
When the Neapolitans decided to invoke the help of San Gennaro, Naples was really in critical condition. The attempt of reconquest of the city by the Angevins, had caused internal conflicts which led to a lack of food supplies and, therefore, to one famine. Vesuvius in turmoilmoreover, it often made the earth tremble under the feet of the citizens. Thus the Neapolitans, on the anniversary of the transfer of the remains of San Gennaro from Montevergine to Napoli, they made the decision to build a new chapel dedicated to him.
The representatives of the five seats of Naples, together with that of the people decided to gather eleven thousand scudi for the tabernacle and for the new chapel (in the end they got 480.000). Twelve members were also appointed to a new institution that was to take care of the work, the Deputation. Thanks to the commendable work of this institution, the chapel did not enter never in the ecclesiastical patrimony, who did not pay a single shield for its construction. Even today, in fact, it remains the property of the Municipality of Naples.
The vicissitudes linked to the assignments to build the chapel of San Gennaro
The works for the construction of the Reale chapel of the Treasury of San Gennaro were entrusted to Francis Grimaldi, highly regarded architect in Naples at the beginning of the XNUMXth century. For the decoration of the chapel, a Greek cross, were chosen non-Neapolitan workers and this aroused a great discontent in local artists, who began to sabotage the designated ones. The first to give up was the Cavalier d'Arpino, while Guido Reni ran away from Naples after his aide was stabbed. Also Francesco Gessi and Domenichino they moved away from the construction site. The latter returned to continue the work and suddenly he died, possibly poisoned. The chapel, however, managed to be anyway completed in 1646 thanks to the work of the Emilian John Lanfranco, also threatened, and the Neapolitans Luca Giordano, Massimo Stanzione and Giuseppe Ribera.
The baroque style of the chapel of San Gennaro
La chapel comes in a magnificent Baroque and is separated from the Duomo by the bronze gate by Cosimo Fanzago. This element has the particularity of emitting real musical notes if it is struck with a coin. In the structure there are seven altars. The largest of them, made by Francis Solimena in porphyry, it contains the ampoules with the blood of San Gennaro. Eighteen statues of saints surround the sculpture of the patron, placed on the high altar. In the whole chapel, also considering the sacristy and the chapel of the Conception, there are ben 54 silver reliquary busts depicting the patrons of the city. The cycle of frescoes it is, for the most part, due to Domenichino's hand. The central part of the dome is, instead of Lanfranco, while the altarpiece by San Gennaro coming out of the furnace unharmed is from Ribera.
The sacristy, the Conciliazione chapel and the Treasury Museum
From the altar on the right starts a corridor that leads to the sacristy of the Chapel of the Treasury and to the chapel of the Conciliation. The former still owns the ancients seventeenth-century furnishings and is rich in stuccoes of cherubs and religious figures. The most important element is the oval fresco bearing the San Gennaro in glory by Luca Giordano.
There are also others on the gables of the wardrobes four paintings on copper, also by Luca Giordano. They represent one Madonna and Child, San Zaccaria a Sant'Anna it's a San Giuseppe. The chapel of the Conception, on the other hand, has one Liberation of a possessed by Massimo Stanzione on the altar. The vault is richly decorated with stuccoes and marbles by Giordano and the later Giacomo Farelli. From this chapel you enter the spaces of the Museum of the Treasure of San Gennaro. This area, inaugurated in 2003 as a museum, covers an area of over seven hundred square meters and offers a very precious collection of jewels, statues, precious fabrics and paintings of inestimable value.
