Sant’Eligio Maggiore is the first church in Naples built in the city by the new Angevin dynasty. Founder of that dynasty was Charles of Anjou (ca. 1226-1285), the younger brother of the French king Louis IX. In 1266 Charles defeated King Manfred of Sicily – Naples was part of the kingdom of Sicily – and two years later Manfred’s nephew Conrad of Swabia, better known as Conradin. Conradin was taken prisoner and executed on the Piazza del Mercato, just east of the Sant’Eligio (see Naples: Santa Maria del Carmine). After all this bloodshed it was time for King Charles to switch to nation building. In 1270 he started the construction of a hospice and church dedicated to the French saint Eligius (588-660). Eligius had been bishop of Noyon in the seventh century and is considered a patron saint of goldsmiths. Charles also began developing the Piazza del Mercato, turning the square into an important commercial centre.
The Sant’Eligio Maggiore was heavily damaged during an Allied bombardment on 4 March 1943. After the war it was decided not to restore the Baroque elements and to give the church back its original Gothic appearance. What we see today is therefore, more or less, the Angevin edifice from the thirteenth century, built in tuff and piperno. If you approach the church from the Piazza del Mercato, you will first see the impressive apse and transept (image above). To the left of the church is the Via Sant’Eligio, where we find a side entrance with a Gothic portal that gives access to the building. The arch above the road is known as the Arco di Sant’Eligio, which has a clock on either side. The bell-tower of the church dates from the fifteenth century. The Sant’Eligio no doubt has a façade at the front, but as the church almost touches the adjacent buildings it is completely invisible.
The interior of the church is extremely simple. We see high Gothic pointed arches and grey and yellow stone. Among the more interesting decorations are the two long sides of a sarcophagus from the fourteenth century. The Latin text on the sarcophagus tells us who the deceased was: Bolectus (Boletto) de Planca, who died in 1341. Bolectus was a knight (miles) and seneschal (senascallus) of the hospice of Philip of Anjou, prince of Taranto (ca. 1278-1332). This Philip was in his turn a son of King Charles II (1285-1309) and a brother of King Robert (1309-1343). The sarcophagus is attributed to a certain Maestro di Cava, an assistant of the Tuscan sculptor Tino di Camaino (ca. 1285-1337). Bolectus himself has been depicted too: he is the kneeling figure to the left of the Madonna and Child. The young bishop to the left of him may very well be Saint Louis of Toulouse. This Louis of Anjou (1274-1297) was the second son of King Charles II and at some point also heir to the throne. However, Louis preferred a life as a cleric. In 1317 he was canonised.
My travel guide promised me frescoes by painters from the school of Giotto (ca. 1266-1337), the great Florentine innovator. These frescoes can be found in the extra aisle that runs parallel to the left aisle. Unfortunately the state of the frescoes is deplorable, which makes them very difficult to interpret. We see a bishop (Saint Eligius? Saint Louis of Toulouse?) who is presented with a mitre by two angels and an Annunciation (images below). A third fresco features Christ. With his right hand he gives his blessing while in his left hand he is holding an open book. The best fresco can be found on a column in the nave. We see a pope holding a diptych featuring the faces of Saints Peter and Paul. According to the Lonely Planet this is a portrait of Pope Urbanus V (1362-1370). The fresco indeed reminded me of a portrait of this pope by Simone dei Crocifissi (ca. 1330-1399), which can be admired in the Pinacoteca Nazionale in Bologna. The Bologna portrait is, by the way, of much greater quality.
Urbanus V had been born around 1310 in the Languedoc as Guillaume de Grimoard. His nationality was therefore French. At the time the popes did not reside in Rome, but in Avignon. His predecessor Innocentius VI (1352-1362) sent Guillaume to Naples as an envoy, which might explain the presence of his portrait in the “French” church of Sant’Eligio. Upon the death of Innocentius Guillaume was himself elected pope. As Urbanus V he effectuated the return of the papacy to Rome in 1367. However, a mere three years later he travelled back to Avignon, because of developments in the Hundred Years’ War between England and France and under pressure from the French cardinals. It was not until 1377 that the papacy returned to the Eternal City for good.
My Capitool travel guide for Naples (2018 edition, p. 77) served as a base for this post.