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Get ready to discover unique hidden Christian history at Naples’ oldest churches. Our walking tour winds through the vibrant north-eastern streets of central Naples and leads us to the bustling port. Here, between the train station and the port, you can explore the city’s oldest churches. Step inside some of these churches, while others invite you to uncover their secrets from the outside.
Walking the Oldest Churches of Naples
After visiting the Basilica di San Pietro ad Aram, we will walk over to the Chiesa dei Santi Apostoli. This area currently hosts a school, and the church is only open during mass.
Chiesa dei Santi Apostoli – 468 AD
The Church of the Holy Apostles’ current structure dates to the 16th and 17th centuries, and during those times, the current school was the monastery, so the area formerly hosted this church and monastery.
Sotero of Naples served as the 18th Bishop of Naples in the second half of the 5th century, governing for about 21 years between Felice and Victor. Historical records confirm his tenure, as he signed the acts of a Roman synod in 465 AD.
Later tradition, preserved in the Gesta episcoporum Neapolitanorum and episcopal lists, claims that Sotero commissioned a basilica dedicated to the Holy Apostles and a nearby baptistery, following earlier development by Bishop Severo at San Giovanni in Fonte. The same sources say Sotero was buried in the basilica, but no identifiable remains have been found.
Despite these written traditions, the site offers no clear surviving physical evidence from Sotero’s time. Scholars have not conclusively dated any visible capitals, pillars, mosaics, or floor levels in the present structure to the 5th or 6th century. Naples often preserves early Christian layers beneath later churches, but no published excavation reports confirm that Santi Apostoli contains exposed, in situ remains that clearly predate the Baroque rebuilding seen today.
Duomo di Santa Maria Assunta
Two of the oldest Christian sites of Naples dwell within the Duomo di Santa Maria Assunta. The church hosts the Baptistery of San Giovanni in Fonte, along with the Basilica of Santa Restituta. The Baptistry of San Giovanni in Fonte means that there is a natural spring at the baptistry. Possibly commissioned by Constantine in 324, or by Bishop Severus in the 4th century. This site is found within the Duomo di Napoli.
Basilica of Santa Restituta – 4th century
The 4th-century Basilica of Santa Restituta shows evidence of the early church. First, the building faces east, and the pillars, along with their capitals, attest to the grandeur of the first church. The two rows of columns and capitals come from the Constantine-built church.
In the Basilica of Santa Restituta, the lower flooring of the first church is available with a few mosaics still in situ. The original level floor of the 4th-century basilica is about a foot below the surface. Most likely the first church was also elevated from the exterior street.
In the main church, a manhole view of the crypt shows the lower level, where an ancient Greek temple wall lies. On the tour, there was no option to visit the crypt.
Despite the later medieval Gothic cathedral of the 13th century, the older basilica still aligns with the traditional east-facing apse orientation. In this liturgical axis, the nearby Baptistery of San Giovanni in Fonte also aligns East.
The Naples Cathedral (Duomo di Napoli) stands at the heart of Naples’ Christian history. Within its walls are some of the city’s most important early Christian sites, including the ancient basilica of Santa Restituta and the Baptistery of San Giovanni in Fonte, alongside the crypt and treasury chapel of St. Gennaro. Visiting the cathedral is not simply a stop on a tour of Naples. It is one of the clearest ways to trace the city’s Christian origins, development, and enduring religious identity across the centuries.
I love to research and have explored the concept of marriage and how to define it, especially in the Mediterranean region.
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