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| Church of San Filippo e Giacomo |
The façade reconstructed in 1758 has often been compared to works by Borromini, the unfortunate architect behind San Carlo a Quattro Fontaine in Rome. This is another church that just appears out of nowhere next to a rather rickety looking block of flats with the cutest little Juliet balconies. I digress as is my wont…
The façade is divided into two superimposed orders. On the ground level a portal with a rounded pediment supported by a pair of engaged Ionic columns with swags of stone cloth hanging from the volutes, (whimsical! Also interestingly similar to San Lorenzo Maggiore which is in this same neighborhood and reworked about the same time) is flanked by niches filled with gigantic statues of St. Filippo (Phillip) and St. Giacomo (James). Each of the Apostles looks rather grand and stands on a funky beveled pedestal.
The second story has four well proportioned Corinthian pilasters and a couple more statues, topped off with a triangular pediment over the central projection only. All of this in whitish stone over a yellow painted stucco ground. Very bright, very pretty.
When I think how the bright colours and innovative shapes of the Neapolitan baroque remind me of St. Petersburg, I am also reminded that most of the architects in the mid 18th century in Russia were Italian (Rastrelli et al).
Saint James (Giacomo, also the name of my Neapolitan great-grandfather), son of Alphaeus was one of the Apostles, though he isn’t really mentioned much in the New Testament. Which is understandable there was someone else there who had a bit more of a starring role.
Saint Phillip (Filippo) we know a little more about. Also one of the Apostles and the patron saint of pastry chefs (for obvious reasons laid out in John) and hatters (I have no clue, perhaps he was mad? Maybe he dealt in felt or mercury?). Phillip was originally from Bethsaida and he died (either by being crucified upside down or by beheading or possibly from being hung upside down from a tree) up in what is now Turkey sometime in the late first century. Surprisingly enough in 2011 “archeologists” claimed to have found his tomb in Hierapolis. As they say; Investigations are ongoing.
Saint James (Giacomo, also the name of my Neapolitan great-grandfather), son of Alphaeus was one of the Apostles, though he isn’t really mentioned much in the New Testament. Which is understandable there was someone else there who had a bit more of a starring role.
Saint Phillip (Filippo) we know a little more about. Also one of the Apostles and the patron saint of pastry chefs (for obvious reasons laid out in John) and hatters (I have no clue, perhaps he was mad? Maybe he dealt in felt or mercury?). Phillip was originally from Bethsaida and he died (either by being crucified upside down or by beheading or possibly from being hung upside down from a tree) up in what is now Turkey sometime in the late first century. Surprisingly enough in 2011 “archeologists” claimed to have found his tomb in Hierapolis. As they say; Investigations are ongoing.
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| The church of San Filippo e Giacomo from the Via San Biagio dei Librai |
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