The Complex of San Francesco degli Scarioni, a Prato legacy

Leonardo Scarioni was a merchant of Prato origin who moved to Naples and spent the rest of his life there, dying without leaving any heirs.

Walking along via Arco Mirelli, in Naples, one comes across a place of worship of considerable size: the Complex of San Francesco degli Scarioni.

Historical background

Leonardo Scarioni was a merchant of Prato origin who moved to Naples and spent the rest of his life there, dying without leaving any heirs.
It was therefore his wish to invest his considerable wealth in the very place where he had chosen to spend his final years, using it to create a religious building, a convent, specifically a Franciscan one, that would serve as a home for around sixty nuns from his hometown, welcoming them into the Campanian capital that had adopted him, thereby leaving behind, in this way, a fusion of his two worlds.

This is how the Complex came into being, with the task of realising his vision entrusted to Giovan Battista Nauclerio, who, after seventeen years of work, in 1721, oversaw a solemn inauguration, delivering to the city the fruits of his labours.

The structure

It appears as a colossus in Baroque style, its façade dominated by an impressive wooden statue depicting Saint Francis.

A symbol of the building, chronologically later than the erection of the complex, the wooden statue is placed above the entrance gate, towering over the whole edifice and welcoming visiting worshippers.
Inside, where one finds a Greek cross floor plan, devotion to the saint is strong and unmistakable.
Indeed the main altar is dominated by a painting, the work of Francesco De Mura, dating from 1773, which depicts him at the moment he receives indulgence from the hands of Christ and the Virgin.
There are, however, dedications within the structure that also concern other prominent figures of the Catholic Church.
In the sacristy, for example, a panel by Marcus Laurus is preserved, dating from two centuries before the aforementioned painting, in which the Crucified Christ addresses Saint Thomas.

As for the side altars, the left one is adorned with the painting of the Adoration of the Shepherds by Antonio Sarnelli, placed above its summit, from the same year as De Mura's painting of the father of the Franciscans, while for the right one, the task falls to the Immaculate Conception, a work by Paolo De Matteis.

Also worthy of note are the Chapel of the Nativity Scene, adorned with frescoes produced by one of the convent's residents, a nun, Maria Eleonora Zarrini, and the Sorrowful Madonna, a work of wax modelling whose merits are attributed to Giovanni Francesco Pieri.

Also important to the Franciscan building is an organ housed within it, dating back to 1721.