All’ombra del Barocco. Il lungo Medioevo della chiesa di San Giovanni a Mare in Napoli

Completely incorporated into the surrounding civic buildings and invisible from the outside, the Hospitaller church of San Giovanni a Mare constitutes a rare testimony to Neapolitan architecture of the Norman era substantially spared from the Counter-Reformation and Baroque flurry of transformation of the existing architecture. Divided into three naves flanked by chapels, the fabric is characterized by the presence of copious reused pieces that confirms the economic commitment and cultural significance of its foundation, which can be attributed to the second half of the 12th century. From the fifteenth century and for the entire following century, the Carafa family would, therefore, hold the bailiwick of San Giovanni a Mare and, despite the possibilities of making transformations and restorations to it, the memory of the ancient times was largely respected and accompanied by little ‘updates’ in taste. Starting from a reinterpretation of the medieval permanence, the contribution focuses on the reasons and limits of the transformation of the Hospitaller church between the fifteenth and the eighteenth centuries by questioning and contextualizing, in particular, the case-study of San Giovanni a Mare in relation to the extensive modification of the Medieval heritage in the city of Naples between the Counter-Reformation and the Baroque.