Fodor's Expert Review Basilica Santa Maria della Sanità

Dominican friars commissioned this Baroque, Greek cross–shape basilica, replete with majolica-tiled dome, in the early 17th century. The church acts as a small museum of the era's Counter-Reformation art—the most flagrantly devotional school of Catholic art—and includes no less than five Luca Giordano altarpieces. Note Giovan Vincenzo Forli's 17th-century Circumcision on the left. Elsewhere, the richly decorated elevated presbytery, complete with a double staircase, provides a note of color in the mostly gray-and-white decoration. The stairs to the right of the crypt provide access to the Catacombe di San Gaudioso, with visits every hour 10 am--1 pm, which includes a visit to the Presepe Favoloso, an elaborate Nativity scene donated to the church by renowned artisans the Scuotto brothers in 2021.