entry
Feb 2005 revise May 2016
Church of the
Most Holy
Redeemer
It is not hard to
find churches in Naples that are 500 years old. As a
matter of fact, if you know where to look, you can find paleo-Christian places of worship
that are 1,000 years (!) older than that. Thus, a small church
less than 100 years old, hidden away on a major
thoroughfare of the city doesn't get a lot of press; yet,
on the Corso Vittorio Emanuele in Naples, there is just
such a tiny, exquisite jewel: the Church of the Most Holy
Redeemer (Santissimo
Redentore).The street, itself, is not that much older than the church. In 1850, there was really only one way to get from Mergellina harbor in the west into the main part of the city to the east; that was along the Riviera di Chiaia, a road that ran (and still runs) the length of the old Royal Gardens (now the Comunal Park). Thus, if you stood at the seaside and glanced up at the Vomero hill overlooking that park and the sea, you saw a largely wooded area dotted with villas, old churches and farmhouses. The way up to those sites was by a number of smaller roads —or stairways— winding uphill (very!) from the city. The Bourbon King of Naples in those days, Ferdinand II, decided to "connect the dots" on the hill, so to speak, by building a major road that would turn inland directly from the Mergellina harbor, angle up and run along the length of the hill about half-way up the height all the way to a point above the National Archaeological Museum, covering a distance of over two miles. It was completed in the early 1850s and named Corso Maria Theresa for Ferdinand's wife, the queen. After the unification of Italy, the name of the street was changed to Corso Vittorio Emanuele II in honor of the first king of united Italy.
The Church of the
Redeemer was built at the behest of Francesco
d'Ayala-Valva (1854-1932) a member of a distinguished
noble family in the Campania region of Italy. The
completion date on a plaque on the premises is 1907. The
church is remarkable for its medieval simplicity—the plain
contrast of red brick and the white marble of the
entrance, window arches, and hanging arches above the
entrance and along the sloping roof that tops the "a capanna façade".
There are two marble bas-relief ornaments on the façade: a
lamb above the entrance; and the Last Supper in the center
of the façade. There is a belfry to the left in the rear
of the church. The architect was Antonino
Maresca di Serracapriola. The architectural style is
described in sources as "eclectic", but the
intimacy of the tiny interior invites comparison with Greek Orthodox churches as does the
large
golden mosaic of Christ Pantocrator behind the altar (pictured).
It, too, suggests Byzantium. The image is one of the
most widely used religious images of Eastern and Greek
Orthodox Christianity. The most common
translation of Pantocrator is "Almighty" or "All-powerful"
The image is generally set in a central dome but has been,
as here, adapted as an upright panel icon. The use of
eastern Christian iconography is quite common in southern
Italy and obviously goes back to the Byzantine
presence in Italy, especially the south. (There is a
larger image of this icon at this page in the
photo albums.)© 2002 - 2023