What to See in Casoria: Attractions & Sights

More places of interest

Santuario di San Benedetto

The sanctuary of San Benedetto, in Casoria, was begun in 1605 and finished in 1694: almost ninety years of building, marked by a fire and a lack of funds.
What to see
There was probably a chapel here before: the funerary slab of Giacomo Torello da Fano seems to attest it; he took part in Pope Innocent IV's expedition against Conrad IV and died in Casoria in the thirteenth century. The present building differs from the one originally designed: a fire that broke out during the works, and the lack of further funds, caused it to be drastically shortened. The church, on a Greek-cross plan, has a single nave and a dome covered in majolica tiles.
The bell tower is seventeenth-century, but its first section seems to date from the eleventh or twelfth century. It was rebuilt in 1930 and, after the serious damage suffered in the earthquake of 1980, was completely restored in 2004. The complex also includes the old Congrega del Santissimo Sacramento, closed in the 1960s, and, at the back, the buildings where the monks lived.
Visiting
The sources consulted give no opening hours or visiting arrangements: check them with the parish. The historic core of Casoria is traced back to the present-day via San Benedetto, via Padre Ludovico, via Santa Croce and via San Mauro.
Our editors' tip
On the adjacent street look for the marble plaque marking the limit of the originally planned structure, before it was shortened. The town library bears the name of Mons. Mauro Piscopo, formerly parish priest of the sanctuary.
CAM Casoria Contemporary Art Museum

The CAM Casoria Contemporary Art Museum is a museum of contemporary art in via Calore, in Casoria. The project was born in 2003 on the initiative of the Comune di Casoria and the Regione Campania, with the idea of both housing works of art and encouraging meeting and cultural exchange between artists and visitors; the museum opened in May 2005 under the direction of Antonio Manfredi, president of the non-profit cultural association International Contemporary Art Center.
What to see
The museum covers about 3500 square metres on a single level, with areas devoted to painting, sculpture, photography and multimedia art; other spaces are reserved for educational activities, experimental theatre, a library of texts on contemporary art and a bookshop.
The permanent collection holds about a thousand works by artists from eighty countries; the African and Chinese art sections are of particular note, while another is devoted to Neapolitan artists from the second half of the twentieth century to today. The sources also mention the exhibition «Make Art Not War» of 11 March 2022, with fifty works by Ukrainian artists, the proceeds of which went to charity for the Ukrainian community, and an episode in 2012, when the museum began burning works from its own collection in protest at the effects of austerity on funding for culture.
Visiting
The museum is in via Calore, in Casoria. The sources consulted give no opening hours, tickets or exhibition calendar: check them on the museum's official website, casoriacontemporaryartmuseum.com, before going. Since 2021, according to the sources, it has hosted CAM APERIART, with themed exhibitions, installations, performances and the participation of artists from the music scene.
Our editors' tip
Don't stop at the galleries: in the municipal park there is the Sculpture Park, a permanent exhibition of sculptures and installations made in 2004.
Casa Natale San Ludovico da Casoria

The birthplace of Saint Ludovico da Casoria appears in the list of places of religious interest in Casoria. Ludovico, born Arcangelo Palmentieri, was born here on 11 March 1814.
What to see
The sources consulted do not describe the house: what makes it important is the story of the man born in it. Arcangelo Palmentieri was the third child of Vincenzo, a tavern-keeper, and Candida Zenga, a very devout couple. After an apprenticeship as a carpenter he was accepted, at eighteen, among the Friars Minor and studied at Afragola, Nola and Naples; he was ordained a priest on 4 June 1847. That same year, while praying before the Blessed Sacrament in the Neapolitan church of San Giuseppe dei Ruffi, he fell to the ground and felt that the time had come to devote himself to charity.
He founded the Frati della Carità, known as the «grey friars», and the Suore Bigie. With the help of Ferdinand II he ransomed many enslaved children in Cairo and Alexandria, to give them an education and make them missionaries on the African continent; in Naples he founded the Istituto La Palma and in 1871 in Assisi the Istituto Serafico, for deaf and blind boys. He died in Naples on 30 March 1885; he was beatified in 1993 by John Paul II and proclaimed a saint by Pope Francis on 23 November 2014.
Visiting
The sources consulted do not say whether the house can be visited or at what hours: it is best to ask the Comune or the parish. The historic core of Casoria is traced back to the present-day via San Benedetto, via Padre Ludovico, via Santa Croce and via San Mauro.
Our editors' tip
The saint's feast is fixed on 30 March; the Neapolitan Church remembers him on 17 June, the day on which in 1832 he first put on the Franciscan habit. His remains rest in the church of the Ospizio Marino at Posillipo, in Naples, where he had a monument erected showing Saint Francis embracing Giotto, Dante and Christopher Columbus.