Museo Cappella Sansevero (Sansevero Chapel Museum), Naples (must see)

The Sansevero Chapel Museum was originally built in the late 16th century by Giovan Francesco di Sangro as a private family burial place, but it owes its present form to Raimondo di Sangro, Prince of Sansevero, who transformed it in the mid-18th century.

The chapel is home to nearly thirty important artworks. At the centre of the chapel lies its most famous work: the Veiled Christ, sculpted in 1753 by artist Giuseppe Sanmartino. Carved from a single block of marble, the figure is covered by a delicately rendered shroud that appears almost transparent, revealing the anatomy beneath with remarkable realism.

The chapel’s walls are lined with marble sculptures, each representing a moral virtue linked to members of the Sansevero family. Among these sculptures, two major highlights stand on either side of the Veiled Christ, toward the north-west. One of them is called Modesty, and it depicts a veiled female figure, celebrated for the delicate treatment of marble. The second is called Release from Deception, and it portrays a fisherman escaping from a fishing net with the help of an angel. The sculpture’s appeal lies in its extraordinary craftsmanship, as the intricate fishing net is carved entirely from marble.

Above, the painted ceiling, titled Glory of Paradise, gives the chapel a dynamic feel by illustrating a celestial vision of Paradise, filled with swirling clouds, angels, and radiant light, opening upward above the nave.

On the right side of the chapel, relative to the entrance, in the third archway, you will notice a narrow 19th-century spiral staircase that leads to the basement. There, you encounter the so-called Anatomical Machines: two preserved human skeletons displaying the circulatory system in extraordinary detail. While the bones are indeed human, the blood vessels are a highly intricate reconstruction made of metal wires, silk, and wax.