IL CONSERVATORIO DEI POVERI DI GESÙ CRISTO E LA CHIESA DI SANTA MARIA DELLA COLONNA A NAPOLI

For years, those steps, completely overgrown with weeds, have caught my attention. As with every closed church, I wondered: what lies beyond that hastily closed door? Now that the door has been reopened, I'd like to tell its story. For a century and a half, Santa Maria della Colonna was the chapel of Naples's oldest music conservatory, the "Conservatorio dei Poveri di Gesù Cristo." Some of the great musicians who founded the Neapolitan School of Music between the 17th and 18th centuries were trained here. Many of them prayed in this chapel. Perhaps the Madonna on the high altar, painted by Paolo De Matteis, inspired Giovanni Battista Pergolesi's Marian devotion, which found its greatest expression in his famous "Stabat Mater." This video will tell the history of the conservatory and describe the beautiful little church that was once part of it.