Christ Church in Naples, Italy
Music reaches into our memories and emotions, it filters through our brains to lift us to a new state of mind. It allows us to be more … and it allows us to remember.
In old churches, empty or full, there is space built to catch the echoes and harmonies of sacred music. It flows in careful patterns up the pillars, through and around the arches, on into the rafters and beyond … and it takes a part of us with it, it frees us from below.
I wrote this piece in March 2016. It gives the history of San Gennaro, the patron saint of Naples, and covers the storm that raged over the threat to the city’s custody of the saint.
Mural of San Gennaro near the Duomo in Naples, Italy
A threat has been made to the heart of an old city, to a unique relationship between the people and their saint. The partnership has lasted through centuries of invasion, violence, disease and volcanic turbulence … but now bureaucracy wants its say.
The challenge is to the arrangements in place for the care of the patron saint of Naples, San Gennaro, and his glittering collection of treasure.
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This piece, first published in April 2016, was written after my first visit to the Madre in Naples. I loved the museum’s calm space, the range of its exhibits … and its roof terrace.
Internal courtyard of the Museo Madre in Naples, Italy with art by Mimmo Paladino on the roof
Art is a place to be, a place that tries to reach us, provoke us. It swallows the rules, the clocks, the to and fro, and waits for us to respond.
Much of Naples itself is art – ancient, modern, faded, alive – but it does not have the quiet, the spaces between, that the Madre brings to its displays. This is the luxury of a visit to the Madre, the chance to leave the hectic city and step into its calm.
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The Phraser 