. Or rather not even the church, but the monastery of the church. Columns and benches are decorated with beautiful majolica tiles, and the walls of portico around the small garden are covered with murals.
And there are benches, benches...
The monastery was built in the 14th century, but it was heavily damaged during the Second World War. Buildings have been reconstructed in the middle of the 20th century.
There are several fountains in the garden - probably, it is a nice addition to the shade of the gallery during the heat.
But the most interesting thing there are pictures on the benches.
I took the guide book about Naples with me. I read there that pictures on the benches compensated poor unhappy nuns things they were missing in their monastic life - views of fields and mountains, forests and of the sea...
Although I noticed that local life was also depicted on some benches.
Look how many cats there used to be!
I did not understand whether it was allowed to sit on those benches... Some tourists were sitting there, but people mostly were sitting in the shade of the gallery.
And here are some more pictures of the garden.
Monastery also has an old library and a museum.
Museum is not pretty interesting.
There was also the nativity scene in a separate pretty dark room.
In general, there are a lot of shops in
dedicated to all these figurines for the nativity scene - presepe. There's even the street, where people are engaged almost only in creating these presepe (San Gregorio Armeno). I do not even know if I was walking down this street or down some other one, but those shops are everywhere. Well, as for me... Just at every step.
I visited one of the shops.
In fact, these nativity scenes are made in many countries and cities, but they seemed to be some special in Naples. There are not just usual scenes of Christ's birth, there are entire cities! With shops, stockyards, etc. - well, with scenes from everyday life of ordinary people.
Here you can see the butcher's shop, vegetable shop and just people doing something...
By the way, I entered the shop and asked whether I could take pictures, the answer was - of course. However, I was not shooting there, but rather watching the master (who is also the seller) making one of the figurines. I stood for about 5 minutes - the figurine in his hands was being transformed just before my eyes - probably, this is a very nice profession))). I would gladly try to make my own presepe)))...
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