San
Diego all'Ospedaletto, also
known as San Giuseppe (St. Joseph) Maggiore, is on
via Medina one block south of the main
post-office. In
1514 Giovanna Castriota Scanderbergh, a
lady-in-waiting to Queen Joan III, ordered the
construction of a chapel dedicated to Saint Joachim as
well as a small hospital ("Ospedaletto")for
indigent nobles. When Castriota died, the hospital
came into the possession of the Franciscan Friars
Minor of the Observance. Work on the building of a new
church and the conversion of the hospital into a
monastery started in 1595; from that time on, the
complex, dedicated to Saint Diego of Alcalà, was
called San Diego all'Ospedaletto. The monastery was
built onto the north side of the church (on the left
in this photo) and was connected to the church
through a passage on the north side of the church. The
courtyard had archways in grey piperno stone
on each side and a central well. Since the premises of
the monastery now serve other purposes (it's a police
station, as are a number of other ex-monasteries in
Naples), that entrance is closed. The front entrance
to the church, itself, is closed. The entire church
has been closed for decades, and, as far as I know,
there are no plans to reopen it.
Various sources cite earthquakes
in 1688 and 1784 as being responsible for great damage
to the church and for many important works being lost,
including frescoes by Massimo
Stanzione and Andrea
Vaccaro. They were replaced by works by Angelo
Mozzillo and Andrea Mattei. The church was also badly
damage during the bombings
of 1943, which caused the collapse of the vault
and the tribune. All that remains of the original
decorative art are the frescoes by Battistello Caracciolo
in the vault and the paintings that make up the Stories
of the Virgin, located in the lunettes in the
large chapel on the left. They are probably also by
Caracciolo, although some sources attribute them to a
lesser known, but significant, painter of the
Neapolitan Baroque, Michele
Ragolia. (His best known work is not in Naples,
but rather in Polla, south of Salerno, in the Cilento
area (#9 on this map);
a remarkable 40-painting display on the ceiling of the
Sanctuary of Sant' Antonio in that town.) In the last
chapel on the right there is a painting of the Passing
of Saint Joseph by Massimo Stanzione (1640). At
the side of the entrance stand the two funeral
monuments (visible in the above photo) of the princes
of Piombino, done
in 1703-1704 by Giacomo
di Colombo to drawings by Francesco
Solimena. The monastery, suppressed in 1808, was
used by the police forces of the Royal Garrison
following WWI. On that occasion, the arches on the
south side of the cloister were cut to permit motor
vehicle traffic. As noted, those premises are
currently a police barracks. The fact that the church
is closed means that you just can't walk in and try to
clear up some of the confusion about the artwork on
your own. Published guide books with photos of the
interior exist, but those photos were taken by special
arrangement with the city administration.