The sanctuary of San Gennaro at the Solfatara is one of the most important places of worship in the Phlegraean area: although it stands on the territory of Pozzuoli, it has belonged for centuries to the property of the city of Naples.
What to see
The façade is simple, with a deep porch and two fine Tuscan columns; on the walls of the porch some plaques recall the church's construction and restorations. On the piperno portal is a delicate seventeenth-century marble bas-relief with the face of Jesus. The interior is a single nave, covered by a barrel vault with lunettes and with side chapels alternating with pilasters with Ionic capitals; a triumphal arch divides it from the presbytery, covered by a pseudo-dome which, with the pendentives and the vault, was frescoed in 1926 by L. Tammaro. Among the finest works are a small altar surmounted by a bas-relief of the martyrdom of San Gennaro, of 1695 by Lorenzo Vaccaro, and the painting of the martyrdom on the high altar, by Pietro Gaudioso. In the right chapel is venerated the stone on which, according to tradition, the saint was beheaded: in the days before the anniversary the supposed traces of blood are said to turn a ruby red, while for the rest of the year the stone is black. According to studies carried out in the 1970s by Professor Ennio Moscarella, however, it is not the stone of the martyrdom but the fragment of an early Christian altar of the sixth century, some two hundred years after the martyrdom.
The sanctuary was strongly desired by the Neapolitans to replace a little church of the eighth century: construction began in 1574 and ended in 1580, on the exact spot where San Gennaro and his six companions were beheaded. The first restoration dates from 1701 and ended in 1708, when it was reconsecrated by the bishop of Pozzuoli, Michele Petirro; in the night between 21 and 22 February 1860 a fire seriously damaged it and the church was restored, to a design by the architect Ignazio Rispoli, with works completed just after the cholera of 1866 also with the contribution of the people of Pozzuoli. According to tradition, in 1656, during the plague, the statue of San Gennaro was carried in procession from the Solfatara to the Flavian amphitheatre: a yellowish stain appeared on the saint's neck and grew until it took the shape of a bubo and burst, leaving a mark still visible today; the saint is said to have taken the plague upon himself, freeing the population.
Visiting
The sanctuary stands at the Solfatara, in Pozzuoli. The sources consulted give no opening hours or times of services: these should be checked.
Our editors' tip
In the right chapel look for the bust of San Gennaro, the work of an unknown artist of about the twelfth century, kept in a niche that was originally a pagan element, a chapel for the statue of a lar. A legend tells that Saracen corsairs cut off its nose with a scimitar blow, and that the nose, found by a fisherman in his net, flew by itself back to its place.
