Santissima Sanità – A Journey into the Sacred Soul of the Rione Sanità

An exhibition in the belly of the Rione Sanità

Santissima Sanità is the exhibition that every spring transforms the underground spaces of the Augustan Aqueduct of Serino, at Via Arena della Sanità 5, into a journey dedicated to Neapolitan popular faith. We are in the Rione Sanità, in the Stella district, one of the most memory-dense areas of the City of Naples: early Christian catacombs, Baroque palaces, historic workshops, and a social fabric that has turned devotion into a daily language. The exhibition stems from this intersection of the sacred and street life, telling its story through small, intimate documents—the kind that usually end up in a drawer—rather than grand museum masterpieces.

What to see

The route gathers a corpus of antiquarian and bibliographic materials sourced entirely from private collections, most of which have never been shown to the public. The works are organized into four main categories:

• Historical postcards from the 19th and 20th centuries, reflecting the face of the neighborhood and its places of worship;
• Holy cards and chromolithographs, small devotional iconography printed and distributed in thousands of copies;
• Period lithographs and engravings, often of high quality and rare to find;
• Texts and documents, from confraternity prints to prayer books.

A common thread runs through all sections: the figure of Saint Vincent Ferrer, whom everyone in Naples calls 'o Munacone (the 'Big Monk'), a symbol of the Sanità district and the recipient of a deeply popular cult, still capable of filling the streets of the neighborhood during his feast day.

Who is behind it

The exhibition is conceived and curated by Stefano Fusco and Gianmaria Lembo, promoted by the association VerginiSanità APS together with the Augustissima Arciconfraternita ed Ospedali della SS. Trinità dei Pellegrini and the Archivio Lembo, with the patronage of the City of Naples and Municipality 3. Part of the project is dedicated to the memory of the Neapolitan collector Giovanni Lembo, whose collection forms one of the documentary cores of the exhibition. Each edition is accompanied by a volume that reproduces the exhibited material and offers critical insights and unpublished contributions: the exhibition is, in fact, an open research project, destined to grow year after year with new testimonies.

The venue: The Augustan Aqueduct of Serino

The choice of venue is no coincidence. The Augustan Aqueduct of Serino is a Roman-era water infrastructure that carried water from the springs of Serino, in the province of Avellino, to the gulf; its tunnels beneath the Sanità district are now open to visitors and offer an underground setting that amplifies the collected and almost intimate tone of the visit. Walking among 19th-century holy cards in a conduit dug two thousand years ago is, in itself, one of the most evocative experiences that Naples can offer this season.

Why it's worth the trip

In a Campania region rich in major exhibition events, Santissima Sanità occupies a unique and precious space: it does not tell the story of masterpieces, but rather how faith has been embodied in the everyday objects of entire generations. It is a short, limited-access exhibition, visited in small groups, which provides the visitor—whether Neapolitan or foreign—with an authentic key to understanding what devotion still means in this part of the city. The spring period also makes it an excellent excuse to explore the rest of the neighborhood: the Catacombs of San Gennaro and San Gaudioso, the Basilica of Santa Maria della Sanità, and the Palazzo dello Spagnolo.