Basilica di Santa Chiara

The Basilica of Santa Chiara in Naples is a fourteenth-century Gothic complex founded by Robert of Anjou and Queen Sancha of Majorca.

Why it matters

Santa Chiara served as a royal church and Franciscan centre in Angevin Naples. Its postwar restoration, after a 1943 fire destroyed much of the Baroque interior, made the medieval Gothic structure visible again.

What to notice

The long nave, pointed arches and exposed timber roof define the church's Gothic interior. Angevin funerary monuments line the walls, while fresco fragments associated with Giotto's school survive in parts of the complex. The adjoining cloister retains its eighteenth-century majolica decoration by Donato and Giuseppe Massa.

Context and history

Construction began in 1310 under Robert of Anjou and Queen Sancha, and the church opened for worship in 1340. Baroque alterations later covered much of its medieval interior. An incendiary bomb in August 1943 caused extensive damage; postwar restoration returned the church to a more austere Gothic appearance, and it reopened in the 1950s.