Naples - Church of Sant'Angelo a Nilo

Faux Brickwork on Sant'Angelo a Nilo

Sant'Angelo a Nilo (and hard to sell flat)

I almost completely overlooked this church and yet I photographed it twice the first full day we were in Naples. The name Sant’Angelo a Nilo comes from the fact that it is right next to the Piazetta del Nilo and being dedicated to Sant’Angelo. St. Angelo (as in Castel Sant’Angelo) was born in Holy Land the rock (stoning) and roll (head rolling)era of the late 12th century. He and a twin brother entered the Carmelite order and he was eventually ordained. He traveled around the eastern Mediterranean performing odd job miracles and denouncing wickedness as he went. Until he got to Sicily, whereupon he dissed the wrong wicked man and was brutally and publicly murdered while preaching in front of the Cathedral in Licata. Alternately the story goes that he caused Berengarius’ (AKA: “Wicked Dude”) partner who was living in sin, to get up and go away. This of course made Berengarius very angry and he publicly and brutally murdered Saint Angelo while he was preaching in front of the Cathedral in Licata. Either way the end result was the same. As the saint lay dying in the street (or in some stories four days later as he died of his wounds) he prayed for forgiveness for his murderer, which is a very saintly thing to do.

The Plague of 1656 mentioned in this blog was supposed stopped by his intersession, but I thought that was Saint Dominico? Maybe it was a joint effort.

The church itself was built in the 14th century (begun 1384-85) though estensivly remodeled in the  1500’s. In appearance it is more like a Russian Palace than a church? Perhaps this is because the long side is the most visible. Overall it is grey (for the architectural details) on a background of red, sort of a dark almost blood red the colour of the Terem Palace at the Kremlin or a smoky brick terraced house in Newcastle. There are two baroque niches on the façade flanking the portal on the long side of the church each with a statue, above there are three windows that have been accosted by several cherubs (I believe a gang of four). The pilasters appear to be made out of stone, however the rest of the grey and red appears to be just stucco. The red background is scored to resemble brick, and it does actually fool the eye from a distance. However when you get close up you can see the rubble wall behind where large sheets of stucco have fallen off the walls.

The church has the cutest little bell tower, it’s so itsy bitsy. And connected to a residential building. In fact the bells are right next to the wall of the fourth floor of said residential building. I wonder how the real estate agent deals with that situation?

Church of Sant'Angelo a Nilo, PIazetta Nilo Facade. Cherubs of doom!