Saint Mary of the Poor Souls Complex - Exclusive Visiting

Saint Mary of the Poor Souls Complex will open exclusively for you!

Discover the tradition of the “poor souls” worshipping tasting a traditional Neapolitan pastries and coffee!

The Church of Saint Mary of the Poor Souls is a little jewel of Neapolitan baroque art located in the heart of Naples; but this special place hides a more interesting story: the worshipping of the "poor souls”, anonymous human remains considered, still nowadays, special messengers to communicate with the world of dead.

Here, since the 1600s Neapolitan come to address prayers and hopes to the “poor souls” and, particularly, to the remains of the so-called “princess Lucia”, a young girl whose mysterious story still enchants visitors and neapolitans.

At the end of the tour we will gather in the small museum located in the church sacristy , where, drinking a typical neapolitan coffee accompanied by pastries we will chat and discuss the tour, fully respecting neapolitan tradition!

Church sacristy houses a collection of paintings and artifacts made between the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries, testimony of the more than four hundred years of life and of liturgical activities of the Opera Pia Purgatorio ad Arco.

Extremely varied is the type of pieces in the museum - silverware, sacred vestments, manuscripts, paintings and testimonies of popular piety. In the sacristy and the oratory are also exhibited interesting paintings of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, including a seventeenth-century copy of excellent workmanship of the famous painting by Luis de Morales depicting the Madonna of the Purity, whose original is preserved in the convent of San Paolo Maggiore.