The relics of the patron saint of the city, and his priceless treasure, to make even the English crown jewels pale, kept in a chapel that is part of the cathedral, but does not belong to it, because it belongs to the people of this city where ” nothing is as it seems ”, and has been run by a lay body for 500 years, the Deputation, which has no comparison elsewhere, to ensure compliance with a contract stipulated directly between the city and the Saint. A blood pact, but also signed in front of a notary. All this can only happen in Naples where “you made them – as Annetta recalls in Eduardo’s comedy Pulcinella’s son, they do as they do in Napule ”. And nowhere else.
This and much more lies within the extraordinary, unique history of the Chapel of San Gennarowhere devotion, art, the public but also very private vicissitudes of an entire metropolis, over seven centuries, are written together.
As Guido Piovene said, that of Naples is a people who have confidence in the sacred, which means, in this case, with the patron saint. So much so that Gennaro, who can be called as “yellow face”, is surrounded and followed by the “relatives” who turn to him, confidentially calling him “my son”. Confidence and viscerality that elsewhere would almost smell like sacrilege. But not here.
And today this urban epic that exudes simple faith and diplomacy, popular tradition and quarters of nobility, ingenuity and Neapolitan culture, is also within the new “audio guide” that accompanies the visitor inside the Royal Chapel of the Treasure of the Saint. A new way of telling the most “sacred” place for the Neapolitans. An atypical narrative, suggestive in the literal sense of the term, which to the aseptic voice that creates the captions to what is seen, preferred to animate the story with the voices of those who were “witnesses” and protagonists of the making of this treasure, of the atmospheres of the place, with the use of the dialect and an immersive musical experience, all branded Partenope.
And then the journey begins where it all begins: from the real treasure “, as the abbot of the Chapel points out, Monsignor Vincenzo de Gregorio, fine musician and musicologist: “the relics of San Gennaro, that is the bones of the skull contained in the fourteenth-century Angevin bust exhibited in the chapel designed by the architect Francesco Grimaldi, a true casket of the Neapolitan Baroque, and obviously the two ampoules with blood preserved in the safe behind the altar ”. This is the Chapel of the Treasury, in fact. All that follows, that is what is visible in the Chapel itself, and then in the splendid sacristy and in the museum, is the “material” treasure, that is the collection of artistic works and devout gifts, objects of worship and devotion in gold, silver, stones precious, from the sumptuous ones of the powerful, of the rulers, of the princes and queens, who went to pay homage to the Saint, to the more modest, but even richer in meaning, of the smallest among the commoners grateful to the Saint for some thanks received. Since 1527, the year of the solemn vow to San Gennaro, and the construction of the Chapel, everything that was donated to the Saint is collected and kept by the Deputation. Nothing has ever been given away, sold or stolen. And this too is exceptional. “But who could make such a mistake in San Gennaro?”, Explains the Vice-President of the Deputation, Duke Don Riccardo Carafa D’Andria, 85 years old, descendant of the Neapolitan family who gave a pope, Paul IV, and as many as 14 cardinals. It is he who explains the secret of San Gennaro’s popularity: “Naples has never had a king of its own, a Neapolitan to the throne, and then we Neapolitans cannot have faith in political power, which it has always looted and taken away here. Thus the “king”, for us, is the Saint. Which also acts very well as an intermediary with God, who put in a good word, as they say, because the Neapolitans are shy with God ”. Extraordinary image that says it all.
The Treasury is made up of incredible pieces such as the miter, the bishop’s headdress of San Gennaro: 3326 diamonds, 198 emeralds and 168 rubies, weighing 18 kilograms; or like the necklace of San Gennaro, which collects alone, combining the gifts of kings, queens 250 years of European history in Naplesbut among diamonds and other precious stones there is also the gift of a humble commoner who escaped the cholera of 1884 who gave the saint her two earrings with pearls and diamonds: that is, everything that was precious and dearest to her.
This is also the Treasure of San Gennaro: a collection of goldsmith’s masterpieces, and of grateful humanity. And this story of Neapolitan crowned and proletarians echoes in the story of “An audio guide treasure”, produced for the Deputation by D’Uva, Florentine brand that invented this way of accessing the masterpieces of art and architecture in 1959. The new audio path has chosen an unusual narrative, emotional, almost confidential register, which enhances the message of artists, clients and devotees in the long history of the Treasury. The originality of the narration begins with the voices: the new path is interpreted by Neapolitan artists and characters. The actors Toni Servillo, Nunzia Schiano and Patrizio Rispo, the writer Maurizio di Giovanni; with them the Duke Don Riccardo Carafa and Monsignor Vincenzo de Gregorio. Schiano and Rispo also gave voice to a version of the audio guide in Neapolitan.
Music could not be missing, to tell a place that for centuries was the theater of musical production and performance that gave international prestige to the city. To the inspiration and sensitivity of the musician and composer Antonio Fresaalso born under Vesuvius, was entrusted with the composition of 12 original songs that form a visionary sound carpet for as many stages of the audio guide, and which have also become a CD published by Record sticker. In his work titled “Tesoro di San Gennaro, a soundtrack experience” Fresa wanted to involve three well-known Neapolitan artists: Raiz, Eugenio Bennato and Pietra Montecorvino, who sang in three songs by the author. Three apparitions that illuminate three particular events linked to the Treasury: that of Maria Theresa of Habsburg who gave the saint a splendid monstrance in pure gold and who converses with San Gennaro in the song; that of the litanies with which the “relatives” turn to the Saint to repeat the miracle of the dissolution of the blood; the last one tells, instead, with the words and the swing of Bennato, the daring story of the “king of Poggioreale”, boss of the black market, who in 1947, managed to bring back to Naples “the gold of Naples”, enclosed in three sealed boxes, which during the Second World War had been transferred and hidden in the Papal State. An adventurous story that has inspired novels such as the hilarious and irresistible “Mi manda San Gennaro”, written by Francesco Pinto.
There is also another piece of Naples in the soundtrack: that of the Sanitansamble orchestra, composed of young musicians from the Sanità district who perform a piece directed by maestro Paolo Acunzo. The abbot of the Chapel Monsignor De Gregorio, on the other hand, performs another piece by playing the organ of the Cathedral of Naples. People and church. City and Holy. Everything is held. Because “in Napule, they are done as if they are done in Napule”. So are the audio guides.