Napoli - Gesù Nuovo

Napoli is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy. Its metropolitan area has a population of more than 3 million.

Founded by Greek settlers before 900 BC, Napoli was an important part of Magna Graecia and played a major role in the merging of Greek and Roman society.

Following the decline of the Western Roman Empire Napoli was shortly ruled by the Ostrogoths. Byzantine troops captured the city in 536m but after the Byzantine exarchate Ravenna fell a Duchy of Naples was created. Over centuries the Duchy´s relations to Rome or Byzanz were hard-fought. In 836 Napoli could repel a siege of Lombard troops with the help of the Saracens, what did not prevent Muhammad I Abu 'l-Abbas in the 850s loot Napoli. In the 11th century, the Duchy hired Norman mercenaries and about 1140 it came under Norman control under Roger II, then King of Sicily.

In 1228 Emperor Frederick II founded the first university in Europe here, making Napoli the intellectual centre of the kingdom. The conflict between the House of Hohenstaufen and the Papacy led in 1266 to Pope Innocent IV crowning the Angevin duke Charles I King of Sicily. Charles officially moved the capital from Palermo to Napoli.

In 1282 after the "Sicilian Vespers", a successful rebellion on the island of Sicily against the rule of King Charles I, the Kingdom of Sicily was divided into two. The Angevin Kingdom of Naples included the southern part of the Italian peninsula, while the island of Sicily became the Aragonese Kingdom of Sicily.

By the 17th century, Naples had become Europe's second-largest city – second only to Paris – with around 250000 inhabitants.

The Church of Gesù Nuovo was originally a palace built in 1470 for Roberto Sanseverino, Prince of Salerno. After the inquisition got introduced to Napoli political intrigues caused the property to be confiscated and eventually sold in the 1580s to the Jesuits to construct a church, that was constructed from 1584 to 1601. The new church retained the unusual facade, originally built for the palace, faced with rustic ashlar diamonds.

When in 1767 the Jesuits were expelled from Naples, the church passed to the Franciscan order.

There is an enigma around marks carved into the diamonds. These may be stonemasons marks, but it was and is also believed that there may be an alchemical or hermetic meaning behind the signs. After the large dome of the church collapsed completely twice, a popular superstition was that the palace or church was "cursed". Recently art historians published a thesis, that the signs on the facade are Aramaic letters.

Maybe Dan Brown can construct a conspiracy theory connecting it to the Holy Grail or suchlike.