Duomo and Excavations
Il Duomo e Scavi
Duomo Façade
The Duomo has always been one of my favorite places to visit in Naples. An oasis of clam amid the chaotic city, the Duomo encompasses 2700 or so years of history featuring archaeological excavations going back to the pre-Christian Greek Neapolis times up to the early and late Roman empires. This even includes an amazingly intact Roman Christian baptistery of the late empire complete with beautiful Roman mosaics.
Not the best part of the mosaic and it's blurry,
but you're not permitted to
take photos.
My camera must've gone off accidentally, while, for a brief moment,
no one else was in the ancient baptistery!
As if that weren't enough, it also houses the bones of San Gennaro in its crypt for all to see and is the seat of the San Gennaro cultus, he being the patron of the cathedral and the city. San Gennaro's presence in the cathedral is also felt in the miracle of the liquefaction of the saint's blood which just happened again on September 19 of this (2005) year. The occurrence of the miracle is a good omen for the city. Its non-occurrence or only partial occurrence is considered an evil omen.
A little of Piazza Duomo seen through an arch.
The cathedral is an example of Gothic architecture. The façade is also Gothic. The interior reveals a Gothic nave, that is intensely baroque in ornamentation. There are several other Gothic churches in Naples, though probably most are baroque.
Piazza Duomo a little more up-close
Entrance to the "Museum of the Treasure of Saint
Januarius"
I didn't go in: I got too caught up in the Duomo and its excavations and
then it got late.
I bought the San Gennaro holy card depicted below from a guy at the entrance to the church.
San Gennaro
San Gennaro or St. Januarius is the patron saint of Naples. He lived in the Roman Empire around the year 300 A.D. He was beheaded in the year 305? A.D. for refusing to abandon his Christian witness against Roman paganism. Thus, he is a martyr as well as saint. I think he was also the bishop of Naples.
When an eruption of the Vesuvius volcano threatened the city of Naples in [date] some Neapolitans sought refuge in the extensive catacombs under Naples. They came upon a shrine to San Gennaro and prayed to him, that if he would save the city, he would be its patron. About this time, the lava stopped flowing and the eruption subsided. The city was saved! For this reason, it is still believed that San Gennaro preserves the city from earthquake, volcano and other local perils.
Every year, on the Saint's feast day in September, his dried blood, contained in small ampolle, liquefies (or does not), portending the city's fortunes for the coming year.
Most Napoletani , even some atheists, accept the validity of the miracle. I will have to study this further. I remain not sceptical, but agnostic vis a vis this miracle. I would like to believe in it. It just seems an easy thing to fake. One thing I can say for sure: I was struck with the clear impression that the city of Naples is in fact under some form of supernatural protection. When one observes the movement of traffic, people, cars, baby carriages, old people, and children together with buses and speeding Vespas and yet never personally witnesses an accident or one car so much as scrape another, it just seems as though some greater force must be at work to coordinate and protect. It must be San Gennaro.
© 1995 and following by Casa di Dino