Monumental Complex and Church of Santa Maria della Pace

Its name evokes serenity: it was erected to celebrate the restored peace between the Pope and King Philip II of Spain. The church, a splendid example of Neapolitan Baroque completed by Pietro De Marino in the mid-17th century, is a jewel of harmony and prayer.

But this gentle name conceals a visceral heart, a memory of suffering and ingenuity. The complex, in fact, also includes a hospital, and hidden within it is a place unique in all the world: the Sala del Lazzaretto (Lazzaretto Hall).

It is an immense hall, sixty meters long, that takes the breath away. It was built urgently as an isolation ward during the terrible Plague of 1656, which decimated the city's population. This space, today silent and magnificently decorated with frescoes and stucco, was once the theater of suffering and care.

Its true uniqueness, however, lies in its architecture. Running along all the walls is a "ballatoio," a suspended gallery. This was not a decorative flourish.

It was the architecture of necessity.

From that elevated walkway, priests and doctors could assist the sick, celebrate mass, and administer the sacraments without coming into direct contact with them, in a desperate and brilliant attempt to avoid contagion.

Visiting the Lazzaretto Hall is an emotional experience. It is walking through a space where human ingenuity created hope in the midst of tragedy.

This is Santa Maria della Pace: a place that holds together the beauty of art and the scar of history, telling, in a single complex, the extraordinary resilience of Naples.

ADDRESS: Via dei Tribunali, 181, 80139 Napoli NA
PHONE NUMBER: +39 081 795 1111