An authentic jewel in the historic center of Naples, the Chapel of the Whites of Justice opens for the first time to the public!
On July 15, 2017, the beautiful "Chapel of the Giustiziati" to Napoli, in the temple of Santa Maria Succurre Miseris.
To be precise, this is about Chapel of the Confraternity of Whites of Justice that will do one new opening also the 22 July. It is located in the famous complex of Santa Maria del Popolo degli Incurabili, where there is also the famous Pharmacy of the Incurable and initially it will be open only for two days a month thanks to the heads of the Curia, the Museum of Sanitary Arts of Naples and the cultural association "The Lighthouse of Hippocrates".
The Chapel of the Whites of Justice
The sixteenth-century chapel owes its name to the activity that has taken place there in recent centuries, theassistance to those condemned to death. Activities that the members of the Congregation of the Compagnia dei Bianchi and, anonymous and hooded, accompanying the condemned to the gallows and inserting in their documents their last wishes and every other important event.
Thanks to the opening they can be viewed documents never seen before, but also places never visited by the public. In the past, in fact, only the church was open and only on occasions such as Easter and the Assumption or on November 2 when the Procession of Bones took place, a symbolic funeral for the condemned.
The Congregation of the Compagnia dei Bianchi della Giustizia
The Congregation that ran the Chapel of the Giustiziati was cloaked by secrecy and no information could be known about it. The mystery that hovered intimidated King Philip II so much so that, fearing an anti-Spanish conspiracy, he dissolved it in the 1583. But the Congregation was so powerful that it soon re-established itself, but only the ecclesiastics could take part.
The visits to the Chapel of the Whites
Thanks to this reopening it will be possible, therefore, to see unpublished documents, but also works of art made by great Baroque artists such as Giovanni Balducci, Giovan Battista Benaschi, Giovanni da Nola, Dioniso Lazzari, Lorenzo Vaccaro, Andrea Merliano, Camillo Spallucci and Paolo De Matteis. Among the most important there is The Scandalosa, a frightening ceroplasty that showed the effects of syphilis and was used to intimidate girls at risk prostitution to return to the right path. Furthermore, the ropes used for hangings and a skull with the hole of a bullet on the forehead.
Information on the Chapel of the Giustiziati
When: first opening 15 July 2017, second opening 22 July
Where: complex of Santa Maria del Popolo degli Incurabili - Via Maria Longo, 50
Timetables: 9: 15, 10: 15 and 11: 15
Price:
- 8 euro for the Chapel of the Whites of Justice
- 15 euro for the entire journey with the Pharmacy of the Incurable, Museum, Cloisters and Cappella dei Bianchi
