A mile-long route to discover the treasures of Rione Sanità
The Holy Mile (the Miglio Sacro) is a sacred, one-mile long itinerary, from the tomb of St. Gennaro to his Treasure. This journey of discovery was reopened in 2006 for Naples and Neapolitans, as well as for visitors and tourists from all around the world.
The tour explores Rione Sanità, a district once inhabited by numerous peoples and cultures, from African to Chinese. When crossing the neighborhood today, the mixture of sounds, colours, and faces confirms that diversity is still at home here. The streets preserve memories of coaches with Popes, kings, and cardinals, from more prosperous times. The churches, more than mere prodigious galleries for worship, provide a place of rest, peace and desire for a better life.
To “experience” the Holy Mile means to support the revival of Rione Sanità by affirming its long history and inner chaotic beauty.
Welcome to meeting a place where humanism either dies or becomes humanity!
Buy tickets online for the Holy MileA trip underground through the history of Christianity in Naples.
At a few metres’ distance and a few steps further down, we reach the Catacombs of San Gennaro, where the tomb of the patron saint is located.
The Catacombs of San Gennaro were created from the expansion of a chapel which started during the second century AD, after the deposition of Sant’Agrippino, first patron saint of Naples, and continued with the arrival of San Gennaro.
They consist of two non-overlapping levels and are characterised by open spaces, dug horizontally.
In the Catacombs you will discover the precious mosaics placed on the tombs of the first bishops of Naples, frescoes of ancient Neapolitan families recovered from ruin and special structures built in the tuff.
See on mapJust outside the exit of the Catacombs, that originally was the access, there is the early Christian basilica built in the fifth century AD.
Like the Catacombs, it was abandoned after the remains of San Gennaro were stolen in the fifth century. In the fifteenth century it was renovated and adapted to the Baroque style. In place of the nearby monastery, a hospital for lepers was built (San Gennaro of the Poor) which later became a hospice for the poor. Despite further renovation in the early twentieth century, which brought it to its original aspect, the Basilica became a store for the nearby hospital.
Since 2008 it has once again become part of the neighbourhood’s life.
See on mapIn Rione Sanità (Sanità District), the basilica is known as the Church of St. Vincenzo o’Munacone (the big monk).
Let’s go back in the heart of the area, to the Basilica of Santa Maria della Sanità (St. Mary of Sanità), landmark of the district. It is known as the Church of the Monacone because it has the statue of St. Vincenzo Ferreri, a Dominican monk and patron of Health.
The basilica is a veritable museum of Neapolitan painting of the seventeenth century, with valuable paintings, among others, by Luca Giordano and Andrea Vaccaro, and the first Neapolitan representation of Madonna and Child, saved from the Virgins’ Lava in the fifth and sixth centuries AD.
See on mapVisits to the Basilica and Jago's exhibition in the Cappella dei Bianchi.
The Basilica di San Severo was recently restored and the surrounding area was refurbished with new street furniture.
The Cappella dei Bianchi is a hidden treasure keeping a selection of paintings by famous Neapolitan painters (Andrea Vaccaro, Luca Giordano and Francesco Fracanzano).
Since 2019, the Cappella holds the sculpture Figlio Velato by street artist Jago. The work draws inspiration from the famous Cristo Velato by Giuseppe Sammartino and was carved from a single block of marble. The Figlio Velato depicts a baby covered with a veil, representing the dying innocents of our times.
See on mapThe Baroque originality of the visionary staircase inside.
A few steps away, another of the most famous buildings in Naples. It was commissioned to Ferdinando Sanfelice by the Marquis of Poppano, who unified two buildings received as dowry.
Its main characteristic is the grand hawk-wing staircase, adorned with stucco decorations. It is known as the Palace of the Spaniard because in the nineteenth century it was bought by the Spaniard Tommaso Atienza.
See on mapIt is the oldest gate of Naples, through which the tufa blocks from the quarries passed.
Our journey ends close to Via Foria, at Porta San Gennaro. The gate was mentioned for the first time in 928 and was the entrance to the city for those coming from the north and necessary passage to go to the Catacombs of San Gennaro.
After the 1656 plague, a frescoed aedicule was added as votive offering, depicting San Gennaro, Santa Rosalia and St. Francis Xavier praying for the end of the epidemic.
See on mapThe Holy Mile, guided tour in Italian of Rione Sanità