Naples, what to see in Rione Sanita' district

Update: March 2022

We said so many times that Naples has a lot to offer. Every time I come back, I discover something new, that may have been there for centuries but I had never paid attention to.
This is the case of Sanita' district, a neighborhood considered dangerous and to be avoided at any cost for many years. I've always been told to stay away from Quartieri Spagnoli, Sanita', and Forcella. And that's what I did.
But maybe Sanita' is changing, it's opening up to tourism, it's showing its joy, art, and history!

The image above shows my itinerary on Google Maps, done in half-day: as you can see the route is not very long, but there's a lot of stopovers to watch (and eat 😁).

Let's go deep into the details and find out what to see in Rione Sanita' district.

During my visits to art cities, I like to book tourist guides who, with their experience, knowledge, and passion, are able to turn a city walk into a beautiful experience of cultural and personal enrichment.

In this long blog post I will tell you what to visit in the Rione Sanita' in half a day, but I strongly recommend that you book a guided tour of Rione Sanita': an expert guide will take you on a 3-hour walk in the neighborhood among catacombs, churches, and historic buildings, for only £12.39 each.
Click here to book: Rione Sanita' in Naples: The Holy Mile 3-Hour Guided Tour.

The district was built in the late 1500s in a country valley outside the city walls, used as a burial place. The name Sanita' (=health) comes from the healthiness of the area, since it was then pure uncontaminated and home to miraculous recoveries taking place in its catacombs. People claim that the name also comes from the frequent floods caused by the torrent that, falling down from Capodimonte, purified the district.

Sanita' district, part of Stella district, is located north of the historic centre of Naples, next to Capodimonte hill. Getting there is easy: you can take line 1 of the underground and get off at Museo, or line 2 and get off at Cavour. Or, as I did, take the Cumana or the Circumflegrea railways and get off at Montesanto: from there it's 20 minutes walk.

The visit to the district starts from San Gennaro gate.

San Gennaro gate is on Via Foria, opposite Piazza Cavour: it was the only entry point from the north side of the city and the only one that led to the catacombs. Unlike the other gates of Naples, this one doesn't have two towers on the side but is surrounded by the buildings that were built around it.

Crossing the street you get into via Vergini, a cheerful and festive street, full of shops and market stalls, with the traders posing as soon as they see the camera 😊 The market is open every day until 8 pm, Sunday until lunchtime.

Strolling around you cannot help but notice the plenty of street art painting the district alleys, made by unknown but also well-known artists, as I will tell you later on this post.

Straight after "Concettina ai 3 Santi" pizzeria, on the left of the curve, you'll find the entrance of a beautiful octagonal building with a double spiral staircase. It was once the headquarters of Alba private school; today it has residential purposes.

Straight after that, you'll get into Palazzo Sanfelice, built by the architect Ferdinando Sanfelice in 1728 as his own residence.
The building has an impressive façade, charmingly crumbling, highlighted by the openings of the windows decorated with stuccos. Due to its peculiar hawk-winged stairways, it looks like the building is collapsing towards the centre.

The stairs at the entrance are covered with blackboard stone, in honour of the architect's wife, originally from a city in Liguria called Lavagna(=blackboard).

Interesting fact: Palazzo Sanfelice has been the main set of some scenes of Gomorra 3. O 'Stregone, the old criminal dealing with the drug traffic in Sanita', lived in the building.

Eventually, you'll end up in Piazza Sanita', the perfect canvas for street artists Tono Cruz and Francisco Bosoletti.
Just opposite the church, on the façade of a residential building, Cruz has created, in collaboration with the children of the neighborhood, "Luce" (=light), a large round mural that reminds a beam of light: the faces of the children are painted as a symbol of hope for the future for the whole community.

On the side facade of the church, there is "RESIS-TI-AMO" (a mix of "resistance" and "I love you"), created by the Argentinian artist Francisco Bosoletti. The work is inspired by a true story and describes a Neapolitan couple who has overcome a terrible illness with care and love. These two lovers are a symbol of resistance to violence, disease, and offences.

The church stands at the centre of the square and was erected at the beginning of 1600 over San Gaudioso catacombs. The feature that struck me the most, and I've never seen in other churches, is that the presbytery is higher than the central aisle, accessible via a beautiful marble staircase above the crypt.

You can also find a sculpture of San Vincenzo, called "O Munacone", guardian of the district.

Sanita' district used to celebrate its protector every year on the 5th of July, with a street party featuring music stars and celebrities. The celebration was suspended in 1975, when the Camorra irrupted asking for bribes. The church is therefore also known as "San Vincenzo church".

A few steps from Santa Maria alla Sanita' Church you'll find another church that is worth visiting, it's called San Severo fuori le mura.

The church is located over the San Severo catacombs and was recently restored, in 2017, giving back to the public and the faithful a collection of artistic treasures such as Cappella dei Bianchi.

This chapel preserves the organs that Domenico Cimarosa played at a very young age, before becoming one of the great representatives of the Neapolitan music school. You can also admire works of the Neapolitan Baroque, such as Sant'Anna by Luca Giordano.

I bet that the work you'll like the most is The Veiled Son, a gem that was only recently added to the artistic heritage of the district. Freely inspired by the world-famous Veiled Christ, this sculpture was created by the artist Jago in New York from a single block of marble from Vermont. The veiled son represents the lifeless body of a migrant child who has just landed on the beach, as seen from the pebble near the hand and the swollen tummy. A really beautiful and moving work that tells us about one of the tragedies of our current history.

Sanita' bridge rules the district connecting two streets, Santa Teresa degli Scalzi and Corso Amedeo di Savoia, and came up from the idea of a Neapolitan architect to connect the Royal Palace of Capodimonte to the city.
A convenient lift lets the locals get up the bridge and therefore to the higher part of the city. It's interesting to see how some houses were built right under the bridge!

Shortly after the bridge, you'll find the shape of Toto', one of the many installations dedicated to the actor, decorating his native district.

Francisco Bosoletti strikes again a few meters from Sanita' bridge, with the piece of art I liked the most in this visit to the neighborhood: "Hidden Hope". The face of a homeless is portrayed negatively on the outside wall of "La Tenda", a non-profit organization providing shelter and food to more than 100 people who have lost everything, those "hidden" from our society. The work is together brilliant and highly delicate; you cannot see the face unless you "convert the negative", willing to go beyond the appearance. And that's how all the features suddenly appear, on a face clearly marked by the problems a homeless person lives on a daily basis. In the first picture, you can see the image in negative and positive 😊

Walk a little more, between graffiti, "bassi" and clothes hanging out to dry on the street: "bassi" are those ground floor flats, whose only door and source of light are at street level. Once they were used as storage or carpenters and artisans workshops. You are on via Fontanelle, which takes its name from the sources of water typical in this area ages ago.

You'll get to Fontanelle cemetery, one of the most suggestive places of the Sanita' district and the whole city. Soaked with history, faith, rituals, and legends, Fontanelle cemetery is an ancient ossuary dug into the tuff rock of Materdei hill.

Its first purpose was to bury the bodies that found no place in the public churches' burials, then the victims of the great plague in 1656 and cholera in 1836. Today the cemetery hosts about 40,000 remains, but it looks like bones are kept underground for at least four meters deep!

The cemetery is also famous for a special ritual, called "anime pezzentelle", held for many years. The ritual consisted of the adoption, in exchange for a grace, of an unknown skull (capuzzella) corresponding to an abandoned soul (so-called "pezzentella"). Worshippers claimed that the identity of souls, with their name and their history, was revealed to them in a dream. The tormented souls needed care and attention, so the worshipper cleaned and polished the chosen skull, decorating with embroidered tissues, cushions, and rosaries. If the grace was granted, the skull was placed in a protective case, craving the sentence "for the grace received" and the worshipper's name; otherwise, it was abandoned and replaced with another skull.

We have said that most of the skulls are unknown, but some of them became famous thanks to some mysterious legends.

One of these belongs to donna Concetta, known as "a capa che suda" (=sweating skull). Donna Concetta's skull is kept in a glass case, in a cavity on the left of the cemetery; According to the worshippers, the sweat is caused by the struggles and sufferings of the afterlife. The real reason is that this skull gathers moisture better than the others :)

Shortly after, in another quite dark cavity on the left, you'll find the disturbing statue of ** Monacone ** San Vincenzo Ferreri, decapitated and dressed up with the typical black and white Dominican dress.

Your attention will definitely be caught by the Court, a cave illuminated by natural light ruled by three huge crosses. According to what has been said for at least a century, the bosses of the ancient Camorra met here to decide about death sentences, to take blood oaths, and other membership rituals.

To the right of the three crosses, you'll find another skull covered by flowers, rosaries, coins, and candles: it's the Captain' skull, that has two versions of the same legend. In short, it seems that a young groom triggered the Captain's soul mocking him, saying ton to be afraid of a dead person and inviting him - ironically - to his wedding. The Captain went to the wedding indeed, disguised as a dark, silent, and severe character; by revealing his true identity, he scared the young couple to death.

Apologies for dwelling, these legends are so fascinating! 😍

PLEASE NOTE: due to adaptation works, the Fontanelle Cemetery is currently closed (March 2022).

Leaving the Fontanelle cemetery it must be time for lunch! Go back to via Arena della Sanita' and you'll find pizzeria Concettina ai tre Santi: the queue is usually pretty long, consider booking a table a couple of hours before lunch so you can get it pretty quickly. When you taste that pizza you'll realize that the long queue is well worth it: it's one of the best pizza in Naples! Soft, light, with a high and airy crust. I suggest you try the pizza filled with provola and salami, topped with crumbled tarallo: insanely delicious!!!

The sign of the pizzeria says Ciro Oliva, but don't worry: he's nobody but Concettina's grandson 😉
Also, if you pass by when there is no queue, you'll find the votive shrine where the famous three saints are kept: San Vincenzo, Sant'Alfonso, and Sant'Anna.

After lunch, take the alley opposite the pizzeria: via Santa Maria Antesaecula. This is the place where Prince Antonio De Curtis, also known as Toto', was born in February 1989. You cannot go wrong: the house is characterized by a beautiful portrait by Fabio Borrelli, a well-known and appreciated Neapolitan illustrator and tattoo artist.

Back to the beginning of the district, visit the last building, called "Palazzo dello Spagnolo" because it belonged to a noble Spanish family in the nineteenth century: this is attributed to Ferdinando Sanfelice, too. It's very similar to Palazzo Sanfelice, but better kept: the colours are lively, the apartments doors are decorated, and has half-length portrays of the family who owns the apartment.

Your beautiful walk of the neighborhood is over.

I was happy and relieved to see groups of tourists and guided tours visiting Sanita' District, taking photos and listening to its stories, paying the right tribute.
I was glad to feel a breeze of change and positivity. After all, Sanita' is one of the districts of Naples richer in history and tradition, a place of art and culture, full of faith and hope.
It's well deserved, isn't it?

Other ideas on how to spend your time in Naples and around? Here are some ideas:

• One day trip from Naples: Procida island
• How to visit Capri in one day
• One day trip from Naples: Ischia island
• Naples in one day

I hope you enjoyed it, and if you find it useful or need more info, just email me at flavia.iarlori@outlook.com 😉