The Restoration of the Santa Chiara Courtyard

From a separate item on Santa Chiara:

“On August 4, 1943, after 95 previous air raids on the city of Naples aimed primarily at military installations near the port and train station, the next attack accidentally hit [Santa Chiara] and, as they say here, ‘destroyed six centuries in ten seconds’ (Robert of Anjou built the original church in 1310.) The fire burned for 10 days; 159 persons were killed and 228 were wounded. The church was left a burned-out shell. The belfry on the grounds is the only part that escaped destruction. A plaque on the front of the church, itself, commemorates the reconstruction, finished in 1953.”

 
The destruction of this, the second most important church in Naples (after the Duomo) was a terrible loss to the city, and the 1953 rebuilding marked the real beginning of the rebirth of Naples after WWII. The courtyard of the ancient monastic grounds was also greatly damaged. It had been famous, most notably, for the presence of the colorful majolica tilework on the benches and columns. Such tiles were characteristic of the school of Neapolitan ceramic in the mid-1700s. Upon commission of Charles III of Bourbon, the entire courtyard was redone by D.A. Vaccaro in the 1730s; the lovely tilework was the work of Donato Massa, a noted craftsman of the period.

Complete restoration of the courtyard is still not complete, and—if one considers the vast amount of work entailed (including the restoration of the frescos on the walls and ceilings of the arched passageways around the perimeter of the courtyard and the relandscaping of the gardens)—maybe it never will be, but the work done since the year 2000 has had significant results. Dozens of art restorers, masons, and gardeners have been at work. Some of the results can be seen in these photos.

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