Church of Santa Maria Donnaregina vecchia
Church of Santa Maria Donnaregina vecchia
by Paola Vitolo
The church of Santa Maria Donnaregina vecchia, home to the School of Specialization in Architectural and Landscape Heritage of the University of Naples Federico II, stands not far from the cathedral, near the northern walls of the medieval city.
The building was part of a religious complex inhabited in the early Middle Ages by Italo-Greek nuns, which then passed to Benedictine rule and finally to Franciscan rule in 1264.
In the seventeenth century it became necessary to provide the community with a larger church (Santa Maria Donnaregina nuova, now the site of the Diocesan Museum), which was built on an axis with the ancient one but with opposite orientation.
The early medieval church, which had been damaged in the 1293 earthquake, was rebuilt a few years later under the patronage of Mary of Hungary, wife of Charles I of Anjou; it is thought that the work had already been completed by the second decade of the 14th century.
By the early 20s the fresco decoration campaigns would also to be completed.
The building is an important example of women's monastic architecture, one of the very rare cases of churches built ex novo for cloistered nuns, to whom pre-existing and repurposed buildings were generally allocated.
The floor plan, peculiar in the local panorama and probably inspired by Central and Eastern European models familiar to the queen, features a single nave over which high windows open, with the raised nuns' choir, supported by eight pillars, extending over almost two-thirds of the space.
The rapid growth of the community of Clarisses already entailed the lengthening of the structure by one bay, with the consequent closing of two windows.
The polygonal apse, lit by triforium windows, is introduced by an archway on the top of which a Christ in Glory was once probably frescoed (as the hosts of angels painted on the walls suggest) and whose vault, decorated with the coats of arms of Anjou and Hungary, offered a solemn setting for the tomb of the queen who died in 1323.
This is a masterpiece by the Sienese sculptor Tino di Camaino, who celebrated the memory of the departed in its private and public dimensions, with the former represented by Mary on her deathbed praying for the salvation of her soul, and the latter shown through the representation of her numerous descendants carved on the caskets.
Both of these aspects are wonderfully summarized in the choice of caryatid virtues placed to support the structure.
The funerary monument has been moved many times and today it can be admired in the space in front of the chancel, although it is believed to have been designed to stand behind the altar.
From that position, the funerary monument engaged in a dialogue with the entire depicted space of the church.
The walls of the church were adorned with frescoes created by a diverse team under the guidance of the Roman painter Pietro Cavallini.
Their careful planning was evident in the well-recognizable overall design, despite the poor preservation of the frescoes.
On the walls of the nave near the sanctuary, which were visible to the lay public, one could see prominent figures of saints and pairs of characters from the Old and New Testaments, often accompanied by palm trees.
Within the choir's walls, the depicted scenes provided the nuns with material for meditation.
These scenes illustrated episodes from the Passion of Christ and the lives of three saints: Agnes, Catherine of Alexandria, and Elizabeth of Hungary.
These saints, renowned for their aristocratic origins and virtues, served as exemplary models of life and sanctity for the Clarisses.
The Clarisses, in turn, came from noble Neapolitan families.
Simultaneously, these scenes invoked revered devotions of the queen and the Angevin dynasty.
The titles accompanying each panel, drawn from the Meditationes vitae Christi and hagiographic texts, facilitated the recognition of the scenes and provided support for prayer.
The back wall, facing the tomb of Maria of Hungary, was adorned with a large fresco depicting the scene of the Last Judgment.
Above this fresco, which is now concealed by a modern coffered ceiling, a painting of the Madonna of the Apocalypse has been preserved.
This artwork serves as a tribute to the church's name and as a homage to the queen.
On the western side of the nave, you'll find the Loffredo chapel, which dates back to the same period as the fourteenth-century phase of the church.
This chapel is also adorned with frescoes, and its entrance is crowned by a rare cycle depicting scenes from the Apocalypse.