Church of Santa Marta, Naples

This church was founded by Queen Margherita of Durazzo, widow of Charles III (1386) who found herself defending the hereditary crown of her son Ladislao (still a minor) against the pretender Luigi d'Angiò. When, after years of resistance, the crown had been successfully defended, the queen had the church built and dedicated to Santa Marta (a patron saint of her homeland in Provence) as a sign of gratitude. The entrance to the church is protected by a gate in which is set a beautiful portal with an arch, inlaid with volcanic rock and marble. The two Gothic windows on the left hand side of the building are also from the Angevin period. The church was once the seat of the Collegium Disciplinatorum Sanctae Marthae - a confraternity which, during its glory days between the fifteenth and seventeenth centuries, counted various members of the royalty as well as noblemen among its number. This is recorded in the 'Codice di Santa Maria' which is kept in the Naples State Archive. The church sustained considerable damage during the Masaniello revolt in 1647. All traces of the original Baroque style vanished during the successive resorations - all that remained were a few paintings. The inside contains a single nave with three side chapels, all in late Neoclassical style - a result of restoration work carried out in the nineteenth century. The reliquaries bearing statues of the saints along the side of the nave are very evocative.