The church of San Raffaele Arcangelo is a church in Pozzuoli, an example of Neapolitan Baroque, belonging to the diocese of Pozzuoli and dedicated to the archangel Raphael.
What to see
The front is markedly animated, both by the curving line of the plan and by the richness of decoration, with projecting mouldings, cornices and pilasters; particularly emphasised are the crowning element, with a broken curved pediment, and the piperno portal, surmounted by the eighteenth-century marble statue of the archangel Raphael. The interior is laid out on an octagonal central plan, with four symmetrical altars in inlaid polychrome marbles and the high altar in the deep apse; the space is covered by a masonry dome divided into four segments reinforced by ribs and entirely frescoed, the walls are clad in polychrome marbles and the floor is of decorated eighteenth-century majolica tiles. Above the entrance is the gilded wooden choir loft. The church keeps numerous works by the Pozzuoli painter Giacinto Diano, among them the Martyrdom of Saint Catherine of Alexandria, of 1758, and in the sacristy the large canvas of the Archangel Gabriel restoring Tobit's sight.
The church was built from 1745 on the remains of the earlier church of Santa Cristina, to a design by the Neapolitan engineer Tommaso Raiola and under the Pozzuoli priest Domenico D'Oriano, thanks to the alms of the faithful; the works ended in 1760. Originally it had a pitched roof and a bell tower, as prints show, probably demolished after seismic events. The choir loft and the organ in carved wood gilded with pure gold date from 1773 and were made by the Neapolitan craftsmen Cristoforo Pollio and Gennaro Ruggiero; the piperno portal with geometric mouldings was made at the end of the nineteenth century by the sculptors Domenico Cortese and Saverio Saviano. Seriously damaged, the church was closed to worship in August 1977 and the restoration works, directed by the architect Giampiero Carini, ended in 2013; after the closure many works were taken into custody by the Soprintendenza or the diocese pending their return.
Visiting
The church stands on a natural terrace, in Pozzuoli. The sources consulted give no opening hours or times of services, nor where all the works are placed today: these should be checked.
Our editors' tip
The church is laid out on several levels: at street level are the nave, the sacristy and the offices, while beneath the nave are a hall and a hypogeum space with the «Terra Santa».
