There was a lot of traffic on the road to Loreto, a small town some 20 kilometres south of Ancona. Here stands the Basilica of the Holy House of Mary, an important site for pilgrims. The infrastructure of the town was clearly created in an era when pilgrims still travelled…
Frederick II of Hohenstaufen (1194-1250) can be counted among the greatest monarchs spawned by the European Middle Ages. He was King of Sicily and Holy Roman Emperor, but also a crusader and a patron of arts and sciences, to name but a few of his other activities. His birthplace Jesi…
The Duomo of Naples or cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta is a complex building, or perhaps rather a building complex. This complex consists of the early Christian church and former cathedral of Santa Restituta, the adjacent baptistery of San Giovanni in Fonte, the medieval cathedral itself and lastly the seventeenth-century…
In the summer of 2024, the big church of San Lorenzo Maggiore was covered in scaffolds. Judging by the images that I found on Google Street View, these scaffolds have been there for years and restoration work seems to progress just slowly. Sadly the orange façade designed by Ferdinando Sanfelice…
The Piazza Gesù Nuovo is a good spot to admire the church of Santa Chiara and its freestanding bell-tower. Naples is a densely built city, the whole complex of Santa Chiara is walled and the aforementioned square is one of the very few places that offers a relatively uninhibited view.…
The immense church of San Domenico Maggiore can be counted among the most interesting religious buildings in Naples. What is special about the church is that it basically has its main entrance at the back. Most visitors enter the building by taking the stairs on the lively Piazza San Domenico…
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…