Chiesa del Gesù Nuovo, Naples

Gesù Nuovo is a basilica in Naples, and this church is dedicated to Jesus. Its striking façade is inherited from a Renaissance palace rather than designed anew for worship. Look at the wall surface: heavy pyramidal stones project outward in a tightly repeated pattern, giving the building an almost faceted appearance.

The palace was completed in 1470 for Roberto Sanseverino, Prince of Salerno, with Novello da San Lucano as its architect. The Jesuits bought the property in 1584 and transformed it into a church between 1584 and 1601. The work was directed by Giuseppe Valeriano, while the original façade and Renaissance marble portal were retained.

The church was consecrated on the seventh of October 1601, and it is also known as Trinità Maggiore. Inside, the building holds an extraordinary concentration of painting and sculpture from the Neapolitan Baroque tradition. In the Chapel of the Visitation, an urn contains the remains of Saint Joseph Moscati, a physician and university biochemistry teacher who was canonized in 1987. A disabled bomb from the Second World War is displayed in the rooms beside the nave, giving this richly decorated church an unexpectedly tangible link to Naples’ wartime history.