Description of the attraction
Piazza del Gesu Nuovo is decorated with a magnificent Baroque column of the Virgin Mary, on which the architect G. Genuino, the builder G. di Fiore, sculptors M. Bottilieri and F. Pagano worked in the first half of the 18th century. The bronze statue of the Madonna, standing on a crescent and trampling on a snake, is crowned with a halo with 12 stars. the column height is 30 meters.
The delightful background of the column is the faceted façade of the church of Gesu Nuovo, converted by the Jesuits at the turn of the 16th - 17th centuries from the Renaissance palazzo Sanseverino, from which only the stone façade, fancifully decorated with reliefs, has survived. The three-nave interior of the church in the shape of a Greek cross is crowned with a dome, rebuilt after the earthquake of 1688. The remains of St. Giuseppe Moscati (1880 - 1927), a Neapolitan doctor - unmercenary, canonized in 1987 and devoutly revered by the townspeople.
