Napoli - Complesso Monumentale Donnaregina

Napoli is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy. Its metropolitan area has a population of more than 3 million.

Founded by Greek settlers before 900 BC, Napoli was an important part of Magna Graecia and played a major role in the merging of Greek and Roman society.

Following the decline of the Western Roman Empire Napoli was shortly ruled by the Ostrogoths. Byzantine troops captured the city in 536m but after the Byzantine exarchate Ravenna fell a Duchy of Naples was created. Over centuries the Duchy´s relations to Rome or Byzanz were hard-fought. In 836 Napoli could repel a siege of Lombard troops with the help of the Saracens, what did not prevent Muhammad I Abu 'l-Abbas in the 850s loot Napoli. In the 11th century, the Duchy hired Norman mercenaries and about 1140 it came under Norman control under Roger II, then King of Sicily.

In 1228 Emperor Frederick II founded the first university in Europe here, making Napoli the intellectual centre of the kingdom. The conflict between the House of Hohenstaufen and the Papacy led in 1266 to Pope Innocent IV crowning the Angevin duke Charles I King of Sicily. Charles officially moved the capital from Palermo to Napoli.

In 1282 after the "Sicilian Vespers", a successful rebellion on the island of Sicily against the rule of King Charles I, the Kingdom of Sicily was divided into two. The Angevin Kingdom of Naples included the southern part of the Italian peninsula, while the island of Sicily became the Aragonese Kingdom of Sicily.

By the 17th century, Naples had become Europe's second-largest city – second only to Paris – with around 250000 inhabitants.

The "Complesso Monumentale Donnaregina" consists of two churches. The younger "Donnaregina Nuova" from the 17th century and the "Donnaregina Vecchia" from the 14th century. Today the complex houses the "Museo Diocesano".

Donnaregina Vecchia

The earliest mention of a church on this site is from 780. At that time, the nuns were of the Basilian order and, when that order left Naples in the beginning of the 9th century, took Benedictine vows. In 1264, Pope Gregory IX gave the nuns permission to join the Franciscan order.

In 1293 a severe earthquake caused great damage to the original structure, and Queen Mary of Hungary, consort of the king of Naples, Charles II of Anjou financed the construction of a new complex in Gothic style.

The frescoe cycle in the nuns` choir ws created by unknown artists 1317 - 1330. The three myrrhbearers at the empty tomb and on the right Jesus appears Mary Magdalene as a gardener (John 20:11-18).