St John / San Giovanni a Carbonara

San Giovanni a Carbonara is a Gothic Augustinian church founded in the 1340s. It stands just inside the old walls, in an area where the city’s rubbish was once burned (the carbonarium). It is best known for the huge tomb of King Ladislaus of Durazzo and for the Caracciolo chapels, which hold some of the finest Renaissance sculpture in Naples.

Naples is sometimes called the “city of blood” for the number of blood relics that are said to liquefy. San Gennaro’s is the most famous, but St Patricia’s at San Gregorio Armeno and St John the Baptist’s are among the others. Which relic was “bubbling” at San Giovanni a Carbonara in 1944 is not clear from the book. It is one of several churches named in the press during that spring’s miracle reports.