PhD Program in Historical studies
The Basilica of the Carmine Maggiore
The Basilica of the Carmine Maggiore is another important place of Ascanio Filomarino’s Naples. Along with nearby piazza Carmine, which in the Early Modern period was united to Piazza del Mercato (Market Square), the Basilica has been the scene of some of the most significant events in the history of Naples and is now one of the best examples of Baroque art in the city. According to tradition, the icon of the Vergine Bruna (Brown Virgin), venerated on Mount Carmel (the place of origin of the Carmelite Order) was brought to Naples by monks fleeing from the Saracens and Palestine. Although historical investigations have denied this story (the icon dates from the thirteenth century, at the same time as the arrival of the Carmelites in Naples), the cult and the many miracles that have been attributed to it have become part of Neapolitan collective identity. The history of the Basilica is closely intertwined with the revolt of 1647-1648. Indeed, it was during the preparations for the celebration of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, on 7 July, that the popular protest began, and it was on 16 July, the day of the feast, that Masaniello, perhaps in his folly, took refuge in the church of the Carmine and interrupted the mass, stripped himself naked and gave his last speech to the people of Naples. Convinced by the brothers to move in the adjacent convent, there he was killed, on 16 July by four musket shots and his head was carried around the city. The next day, upon the return of the gabella taxes and the decrease in the weight of bread, the rebels recovered the body of Masaniello, which was attached to his head and carried it in procession, burying him just inside the Church of the Carmine, where he would remain until 1799In 1799, after returning to the throne following the failure of the Neapolitan Republic of Jacobin inspiration, Ferdinand IV of Bourbon decided to remove Masaniello’s body from the Basilica del Carmine Maggiore, to deprive the rebels of a symbol and an element of identity.. The exterior of the Basilica, which had been a sort of “headquarters” of the rebels throughout the revolt, suffered greatly during the events of those years: the façade was hit during the bombardment of the city in October 1647 and then rebuilt, receiving its current form in the second half of the eighteenth century. The bell tower, the tallest in the city, was built in stages during the seventeenth century and in the following century work was undertaken that obliterated the original Gothic appearance of the Basilica and gave it the current one, corresponding to the canons of the Baroque. The interior has a nave with side chapels and beautiful rich coloured marble. It has a modern ceiling in place of the original seventeenth-century one though the explosion of a ship in the port of Naples caused its collapse during World War II. The role of the Basilica del Carmine Maggiore as a powerful symbol of the history of Naples is also confirmed by the amount of important people who were or are still buried in it: in addition to Masaniello, there was also Conrad of SwabiaConrad of Swabia (1252-1268) was the last descendant of the house of Swabia. He was the son of Conrad IV and, therefore, the nephew of the Emperor Frederick II. Having lost his father at the age of two years, he came to Italy at the invitation of the Italian Ghibellines after the defeat of his uncle Manfred of Sicily in Benevento (1266). Conrad, however, was defeated in Tagliacozzo (1268) by Charles of Anjou, who ordered his beheading., and many of the martyrs of the Neapolitan Republic in 1799.