What to see · Marano di Napoli

More places of interest

• Parrocchia San Castrese

  The parish of San Castrese is the mother church of Marano di Napoli, in the metropolitan city of Naples, and belongs to the archdiocese of Naples. It is dedicated to Saint Castrensis, patron of the town, celebrated on 11 February, and is considered one of the most beautiful churches in the province of Naples.

  What to see

  The building was erected around 1600, replacing an earlier church. The veneration of the relic of the patron saint is tied to the church. According to tradition, the people of Marano, who knew of the cult of Saint Castrensis through trade with Sessa Aurunca, obtained a relic through the intercession of Cardinal Ludovico de Torres, archbishop of Palermo, who sent it to the archbishop of Naples Francesco Buoncompagni; he gave it to the parish priest don Cesare Moio. It is part of a tibia, formerly wrongly thought to be an arm bone, still kept in the saint's reliquary bust. In recent restorations some frescoes, previously hidden by later pictures, came to light in the side aisles, together with an ancient wooden head of the saint, thought to be over five centuries old.

  The church has three aisles and, along its right flank, an elegant bell tower. It keeps an octagonal baptismal font, of unknown authorship: according to local tradition it is a Roman-era font donated by the Visconti family. Inside are six canvases showing some prodigies attributed to Saint Castrensis and concerning Marano, which took place between the second half of the seventeenth century and the second half of the twentieth, for some of which testimony exists in the parish historical archive; there are also the statue and the reliquary bust of the patron.

  Visiting

  The church is in Marano di Napoli. The sources consulted give no opening hours or visiting arrangements: check them, for example on the parish's official website, sancastrese.org.

  Our editors' tip

  The cult of Saint Castrensis, a bishop who lived between the fourth and fifth century, unites the faithful of five places: Castel Volturno, Sessa Aurunca, Marano di Napoli and Quarto in Campania, and Monreale in Sicily, where his remains are kept in the cathedral. At Marano the celebrations of 11 February also include the «Sbarco» and the «Ottava».

• Ciaurro

  The Ciaurro is a Roman-era mausoleum in Marano di Napoli, on via Guglielmo Pepe, probably dating from the first to second century AD; the source calls it the most important funerary architectural work in Campania.

  What to see

  It was discovered by chance by some boys, although its existence was already known. At first it was used as a barn and then as a storeroom; only in the last century was the monument protected and enhanced. Today it stands inside the municipal park that takes its name from it, built specially for the monument. It occupies an area of about four hundred square metres; the walls have niches that held the cinerary urns. Walls and niches are of tufa, perhaps from the Camaldoli hill, while the edges of the entrance and the window are of terracotta bricks which, after careful analysis, turned out to come from the Phlegraean Fields, since the soil there shows many traces of sulphur; rhombi are inlaid in the tufa walls.

  The Ciaurro once had a large dome, later destroyed by the weather: its collapse broke only the floor and not the whole chamber, so the upper floor was saved. The only intact floor is the ground floor, about three metres below the present ground level. It is not well known who was buried there: the most credited supposition sees as its owner Tiro, a politician, orator and disciple of Cicero. The only thing of value found, apart from the whole structure, is an ornate casket holding thirty silver coins.

  Visiting

  The mausoleum is on via Guglielmo Pepe, in the municipal park that bears its name, in Marano di Napoli. The sources consulted give no opening hours or visiting arrangements: check them.

  Our editors' tip

  The name is of Arabic origin, from «tjaurr», meaning infidel, the term with which the Saracens designated all Roman remains, because they were pagan. In the nearby Salandra wood is the Ciauriello, a Roman villa of the period between the first and fourth century AD, today in ruins, of which pieces of opus reticulatum and the water cisterns remain.

Some links may earn BigItalia a commission, at no extra cost to you.