The Sant’Angelo a Nilo Church is located on the southeast corner of the Piazza San Domenico on the famous Spaccanapoli Street in Naples. The church is also called the Cappella Brancaccio.
Sant’Angelo a Nilo Church Naples
Useful Information
The address of the church is Piazzetto Nilo, 23 – Naples. Opening hours: 09:00 to 13:00 and 16:30 to 19:00. On Sundays and holidays, the church is open only in the morning. Admission is free.
History and Description
The Church of Sant’Angelo on the Nile is also called the Cappella Brancaccio, after the family that financed its construction in 1385.
The reference to the Nile is due to a Greek statue of the river Nile in the nearby Piazzetta Nilo. The current appearance of the church is due to a renovation overseen by the architect Arcangelo Guglielmelli in the 17th century. Exiting the side door on the right leads to the courtyard of the Palazzo Brancaccio. It is in this building that the family once founded the first public library in Naples.
What to see
The main attraction is the sepulchrum of Cardinal Rinaldo Brancaccio. It was made in Pisa between 1426 and 1428 and then brought to Naples. The artists who worked on it were a young Donatello, and his friends Michelozzo and Pagno di Lapo. Especially the bas-relief that Donatello himself made in his stiacciato style is characteristic of the transition from the Gothic to the Renaissance style.
The “San Michele” near the altar was painted by Marco Pino da Siena.
I Santi in adorazione del Volto Santo (“The Saints Worshiping the Holy Face”) was painted by Giovan Battista Lama.
The 6th century relics of the matron Candida are kept in a chapel on the right. The painting “Apparition of the Virgin to Saint Candida” by Carlo Sellitto hangs in the same chapel. (It was discovered a few years ago, by the way, that Candida was not a saint).