The church of the Most Holy Sacrament and Saint Michael the Archangel, known as the church of San Michele, is a church in Torre del Greco: beneath it lies a hypogeum with an unusual history, all that remains of the church of an eighteenth-century convent buried by lava in 1794.
What to see
The complex began as a conservatory for the orphans of the plague of 1656, founded by the parish priest of Santa Croce, Nicolandrea Balzano; in 1683 the archbishop of Naples, Innico Caracciolo, turned it into a convent, entrusted to Sister Serafina of Capri, who adopted the Teresian rule. The new premises, on via di Capo Torre (today via Diego Colamarino), were built between 1696 and 1706 and the convent church, dedicated to the Immaculate Conception, was consecrated in 1727. It was a strongly raised church, reached by two ramps of twelve steps, with a single nave on a Latin-cross plan and a tall dome; on the high altar was a painting by Paolo de Matteis of the Immaculate Conception, other altars were dedicated to Saint Teresa and the Crucifix, and the floor was of terracotta and glazed tiles by craftsmen of Massa Lubrense, of which fragments remain. The sacristy, also interpreted as the nuns' private chapel, is divided in two by an arch and has frescoes by De Matteis in painted architecture, with scenes from the life of Saint Teresa, Marian symbols, God the Father with the dove of the Holy Spirit and the Glory of the Virgin.
After the eruption of Vesuvius in 1794 the church was buried by lava to half its height, about seven or eight metres, and the monastery was almost destroyed; the nuns moved to Naples and the church was abandoned. In 1803 the confraternity of the Most Holy Sacrament and Saint Michael the Archangel, founded in 1632, bought and restored the church: a new floor was made at street level, some metres above the now underground floor, and the old large window was turned into a door. The works were carried out by the architect Ignazio Di Nardo, who with Vincenzo Romano was a leading figure in Torre del Greco's rebuilding after the eruption. The lower part was used for the private burial of the confraternity's members.
Visiting
In 1969 the cardinal archbishop of Naples, Corrado Ursi, decided to root out the cult of the dead in its pagan drift, and the underground space, which had been an air-raid shelter in the Second World War, was abandoned; in 1979 it was partly cleaned by the priest Nicola Ciavolino with the Gruppo archeologico torrese, but in the 1980s it was used for illegal dumping of rubble after the earthquake of 1980. In 2010 it was reopened to the public by the Gruppo Archeologico Vesuviano, together with the nuns' original sacristy. According to the sources consulted the hypogeum can be visited, but the crypt on the third level has not yet been cleared of rubble: opening hours and visiting arrangements should be checked.
Our editors' tip
The underground space is tied to the cult of the «anime pezzentelle» or «capuzzelle»: once the ossuary was full, many bones had been left in view, and pious souls, above all women, «adopted» a skull, prayed for it, lit small lamps and cleaned it, asking in return for favours and intercession.
