Occasioni di rigenerazione urbana, I luoghi sacri del largo Gesù e Maria

The present aims of the proper action of regeneration of the historical cities are intended to pursue quality in the transformations of physical space and environment, and to the convergence towards a shared project of future of the city in terms of urban coherence, scenic-environmental sustainability and social cohesion. The research investigation that we conducted deals with the study of architectures within Avvocata district. This is a difficult area for its morphological origin, natural geography, built geography, urban characterisation and social and residential conditions; it is pervaded by an atavistic imprimatur of decay and sense of laterality leading to its becoming an area of urban dismission in the course of time, and especially in the contemporary times, despite its position as “hub” within the consolidated historic fabric of the city and within a district that is proposed as a necessary hinge between Vomero and the “lower city”, both for the potentialities that it is capable of expressing, and for the vocations that have characterized its urban role. The church and the convent of Gesù e Maria, which today constitute a real urban episode, arose in the context of the fast building of the Seventeenth century. On the one hand the complex contains Pontecorvo rise, which is marked by a lot of religious complexes, and concludes it in a basin that anticipates the churchyard; on the other hand, in addition to mediate this slope overlooking the Cavone in its relation of convergence on Salvator Rosa street, it defines the reference figure with the conventual complexes that measure the development of the opposite side. Space of confluence of architectures, which are not only religious and find an outstanding reference in the compactness of the structure of monastery and church, which should take on the task of significantly influencing the urban context: the condition of abandonment and decay of significant parts of these buildings requires a necessary and urgent revaluation concerning their strategic role within the city.