What to see · Casalnuovo di Napoli

More places of interest

• Chiesa di San Nicola di Bari

  The church of San Nicola di Bari is in Licignano, a district of Casalnuovo di Napoli, and belongs to the diocese of Acerra. It began under the title of the Annunziata: in 1583, during his pastoral visit, the bishop of Acerra Scipione Salernitano made it a parish church, and it inherited the parish functions of the fourteenth-century chapel of San Nicola, in the middle of the village. Since October 2003 it has been the seat of the parish of San Nicola di Bari.

  What to see

  The church stands not far from the baronial palace of the Salerno family and was embellished in the second half of the eighteenth century: the link with the family can be seen in the inlaid marble high altar, which bears at its sides the arms of the Salerno-Doria and Salerno-de Liguoro. The façade, in neo-Renaissance taste, is divided into three tiers by strong cornices on plain pilasters; in the 2014 restoration it was freed from the geometric decoration added after the war.

  The interior is a single hall in tufa masonry covered by a barrel vault, with two chapels on each side and altars in polychrome marble, including the nineteenth-century one of the Fontana family and one erected in 1908 by the Papaccio family. Above the entrance, beneath which lay the old ossuary, is the choir loft with a carved wooden balustrade. The vault of the nave and presbytery and the lunettes above the windows are decorated with frescoes set in stucco, painted by Giuseppe Torelli in the forties of the twentieth century and restored in 2014.

  Visiting

  The church is in the centre of Licignano. The floor has been relaid in Carrara marble, and the iron and tile roof dates from the strengthening work after the 1980 earthquake. Opening hours should be checked with the parish.

  Our editors' tip

  Saint Nicholas is the patron saint of Licignano, and as with Casalnuovo's other patron saints, tradition has his statue carried in procession through the streets: ask about the date of the feast.

• Chiesa di Santa Maria delle Grazie

  The church of Santa Maria delle Grazie is in Casalnuovo di Napoli, in a side street off via Casarea, near piazza Padre Aspreno Rocco, and belongs to the archdiocese of Naples. It began as the family chapel of the Pisacane-Chiacchiari, next to the farmhouse where they spent their holidays: it was Donna Chiacchiari, who had no place of worship during her stays, who wanted it. Work began in the early nineteenth century and was completed in 1817 by her sons, Vincenzo and Francesco.

  What to see

  The church, in neoclassical style, has a central plan with four arms, corresponding to the entrance, the presbytery and the two transept wings, forming a single hall with altars at the sides. In the centre is a dome, and over the arms are vaults with lunettes above the windows. The decoration is in white stucco: the capitals of the pilasters are picked out and a dentil band divides the walls into two tiers; in the lower one, stucco frames hold canvases datable to the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. On the polychrome marble high altar is a canvas with the titular saints, and the floor is of rectangular slabs of pale marble.

  The façade, restrained and in proportion with the plan, is rendered in pale yellow and enlivened by Baroque stucco elements; at the top of the dentilled pediment is an iron crucifix, with a statue of the Madonna in the centre. The portal, with a piperno stone frame and Ionic columns decorated with garlands, supports a niche with a small votive temple.

  Visiting

  The building is now in poor condition, with plaster coming away and rising damp: it is best to check beforehand whether it is open.

  Our editors' tip

  Look up at the pediment of the façade: it bears the inscription «Non c'è amore più grande», «There is no greater love».

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