Complesso Museale Santa Maria delle Anime del Purgatorio ad Arco
Complesso Museale Santa Maria delle Anime del Purgatorio ad Arco
Complesso Museale Santa Maria delle Anime del Purgatorio ad Arco
4.5
10:00 AM - 2:00 PM
Monday
10:00 AM - 2:00 PM
Tuesday
10:00 AM - 2:00 PM
Wednesday
10:00 AM - 2:00 PM
Thursday
10:00 AM - 2:00 PM
Friday
10:00 AM - 2:00 PM
Saturday
10:00 AM - 2:00 PM
Sunday
Closed
About
"Pezzentele" Souls Church In the heart of the ancient center of Naples, along via dei Tribunali, there is the Church of Santa Maria delle Anime in Purgatory in Arco, known to the Neapolitan people as the church "de '' e cape 'e morte" (the head of dead). Crossing the threshold begins a real journey in the Neapolitan culture between art, faith, life, death. From the small and beautiful church of the '600, which preserves the precious marble and winged skull of Dionisio Lazzari, together with masterpieces by Massimo Stanzione, Luca Giordano and Andrea Vaccaro, we descend into the ancient and grandiose hypogeum (the underground church) that still hosts the fascinating worship aimed at anonymous human remains that become special intermediaries for invocations, prayers, requests for intercessions. A small museum set up in the elegant sacristy completes the itinerary.
Duration: < 1 hour
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Address
Neighborhood: Pendino
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See what travelers are saying
- antonaplesNaples, Italy55 contributionsInteresting visit: culture, religion, mystery, traditions and history of Naples of the past mixed with the charm of the relics exposed to the beauty of the church, the splendor of the jewels and various works of art. A truly amazing place that makes you rich and fills your soul. A guided tour is recommended, which with the necessary explanations and expert stories, in addition to increasing your personal cultural background, makes you "travel" with your imagination and imagination.Visited October 2023Traveled with friendsWritten May 3, 2024
- VedroleFigjModena, Italy569 contributionsThe visit to the church and the catacombs offers an extraordinary insight into the history of Naples and its inhabitants Devotion, love, superstition, divine mix offering a UNIQUE show Church and crypt restored very well in which you can see the skulls and PGR of the people YOU MUST VISITVisited March 2025Traveled as a coupleWritten March 3, 2025
- LVPa53Palermo, Italy7,322 contributionsSurprising church, spread over 3 levels, all equally interesting. The deepest is a cemetery and it is forbidden to take pictures of it. The bones of the deceased are preserved there, accompanied by everyday objects, everything from ex voto to cars and toys. Many bones are kept in tiled niches as if to recreate a domestic corner. Among the many, there is a skull wearing a lace cap and whose identity there are numerous theories, readable in an explanatory sign. She was given the name Lucia and many people turn to her to ask for thanks. The Church was famous for the cult of "pezzentelle" souls, that is, who required the care and prayers of the living, many of whom "adopted" the remains of a deceased and cared for them, a practice that a cardinal prohibited (going down, we read a manifesto on this prohibition), but to no avail. The ticket costs 7 euros. Recommended the visitVisited October 2024Traveled with friendsWritten November 8, 2024
- iamfaceCardiff, United Kingdom1,808 contributionsfirst time to visit such kind of church and sad for other one Chiesa Museo closed. however this one also impressive and pretty. full of history and architecture. worth to visitVisited March 2024Traveled with friendsWritten April 8, 2024
These reviews are the subjective opinion of Tripadvisor members and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews.
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Detailed Reviews: Reviews ordered by recency and descriptiveness of user-identified themes such as wait time, length of visit, general tips, and location information.
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4.5
430 reviews
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Ag17022000
618 contributions
Aug 2023 • Solo
6 euros are perhaps a little excessive for a very short museum tour, but the experience is certainly intense and to be recommended, at least if you are interested and are well aware of what awaits those who enter inside: an average baroque interior Neapolitan, but embellished with numerous macabre Purgatory-themed insertions, and - for a fee - two underground rooms which explain in the best possible way the cult of "beggarly souls". You don't have to be unimpressive to enter, but you will find yourself just a few centimeters from human skulls that are the object of a disconcertingly still current veneration. I recommend downloading the guide at the entrance and also visiting the two rooms of the museum (these too, invariably themed). Nearby Santa Luciella offers a similar "macabre" experience.

Written August 12, 2023
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Ema
Naples, Italy286 contributions
Oct 2024 • Couples
Sunday in October, we await the opening scheduled for 10:00.
We enter with the intention of visiting the church and the museum below.
We line up to make tickets, when paying ... they do not accept electronic payments!
It is truly unthinkable in 2024, in a city that aims for progress and internationalization.
Obviously, having no cash, we left... poor management of such an important site. A sad photograph of the Neapolitan contradiction: the desire for rebirth gives way to backwardness.
How sad... and I speak as a Neapolitan!
We enter with the intention of visiting the church and the museum below.
We line up to make tickets, when paying ... they do not accept electronic payments!
It is truly unthinkable in 2024, in a city that aims for progress and internationalization.
Obviously, having no cash, we left... poor management of such an important site. A sad photograph of the Neapolitan contradiction: the desire for rebirth gives way to backwardness.
How sad... and I speak as a Neapolitan!
Automatically translated
Written October 27, 2024
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
ondadimare
Italy18,578 contributions
Dec 2024 • Solo
...passing through Via dei Tribunali in Naples!!...I saw this Church of Santa Maria delle Anime del Purgatorio!!...it is located right in the ancient center of the city!!...I state that I have only seen the outside!!...so the facade is very decorated!!...with skulls and bones even in the side niches!!...above the entrance door you can see the bas-relief depicting the Madonna of the Souls of Purgatory!!...on the curbstones before entering are presented among bronze skulls!!...Church definitely with Baroque architecture!!...dedicated to the Virgin Mary!!...for the salvation of the souls of Purgatory!!...it is said that the interior consists of two Churches one upper and the other lower!!...with the Opera Museum and the Historical Archive!!...inside are preserved important works!!...artistic and historical!!!...what can I say!!...I really think it is a beautiful Church!!...it is the Church of Santa Maria delle Anime del Purgatorio!!...in via dei Tribunali in Naples!!...💒👌🔔!️
Automatically translated
Written January 8, 2025
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Ana C
1 contribution
Apr 2023 • Friends
Naples is a wonderful city, full of life. Its contrasts make it unique. The Neapolitan is welcoming and likes to talk, which makes communication easy. The food is delicious and the pizza irresistible!
Get to know Napoli and have a super pleasant experience. Don't forget to visit the surroundings of Napoli, Malfico Coast, Pompeii and Capri
Bon voyage!!
Get to know Napoli and have a super pleasant experience. Don't forget to visit the surroundings of Napoli, Malfico Coast, Pompeii and Capri
Bon voyage!!

Written January 18, 2024
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Caitlin Cannon Zaiken
London, England, United Kingdom53 contributions
Feb 2023
This was one of my favorite churches that we visited. It’s very macabre, but the hypogeum connected the city’s past and present in a way I hadn’t really experienced elsewhere. The price is really good for the self-guided tour, too. Definitely worth popping into.
Written March 10, 2023
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Agnieszka Martina
Rome, Italy19 contributions
Feb 2020
Your visit will be well organized and you will receive the audio guide that will help you understand the cult of "anime pezzentelle" practiced here time ago, the souls that live in Purgatory according to the equal exchange: the dead ask the living to intercede with their prayers for the salvation of their souls and in turn give them protection.
Descending you will find yourself inside an ancient 3-nave-crypt with marble columns. Catacombs were discovered here that with time became a place of worship of the purgatory souls. It is the worship of the "anime pezzentelle", the poor souls that live in Purgatory, that makes this complex famous.
Descending you will find yourself inside an ancient 3-nave-crypt with marble columns. Catacombs were discovered here that with time became a place of worship of the purgatory souls. It is the worship of the "anime pezzentelle", the poor souls that live in Purgatory, that makes this complex famous.
Written April 13, 2020
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Andrew C
West Hollywood, CA26 contributions
Jul 2019
This was a highlight on our visit to Naples. I had never before heard of such a practice of helping the dear departed leave purgatory for heaven. Very intense and solemn experience of death. Probably not for the weak of heart, but those of us traveling together felt it was a very moving, very unique experience.
Written August 31, 2019
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Tom&NikkiTravel
London, UK1,901 contributions
Jul 2019 • Couples
So this church is unique...it is infact 2 churches. The one you can see from the outside is free to enter and stroll around but the oddity is the paintings all seem death related and there are skulls everywhere?
The 2nd church is underneath and where this takes an interesting turn. Built to be a dedication to the prayer for those in purgatory this appears to still be a practise to this day. The most common appears to be Lucia the patron saint of virgin brides wearing a tiara and a veil.
Whilst the pope attempted to suppress this practise in 1969 declaring it as superstition and based to much around myth and folklore it is certainly interesting and worth paying the small admission to visit the 2nd church.
The 2nd church is underneath and where this takes an interesting turn. Built to be a dedication to the prayer for those in purgatory this appears to still be a practise to this day. The most common appears to be Lucia the patron saint of virgin brides wearing a tiara and a veil.
Whilst the pope attempted to suppress this practise in 1969 declaring it as superstition and based to much around myth and folklore it is certainly interesting and worth paying the small admission to visit the 2nd church.
Written July 31, 2019
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
M M
Paris, France57 contributions
Oct 2014 • Couples
A fascinating visit, both to the museum section behind the altar, and to the crypt and even lower areas beneath the church. If you go on the visit, hidden behind the altar is your first skull - which has wings, aspiring to Santa Maria where she flies in the painting above it. Then, below the church are niches with carefully posed displays of skulls and bones, an unknown person's grave to commemorate plague victims, and hundreds of messages, wishes and prayers to the dead. On a yet lower level you will find 10 or 12 graves of loose earth; and you can look down through a floor grating to another lower level. The idea behind all this emphasis on bones, is to maintain a relationship with the dead. Your prayers for them will help them to purify themselves and so rise through Purgatory; then, in gratitude, the dead person you have helped, will help you when your miserable sin-stained existence comes to an end.
Our guide spoke English and was knowledgeable. Wouldn't have missed this visit.
The church itself is a baroque wonder with inlaid marble, gilding, frescoes, and patterns everywhere. It is a beautiful example.
Our guide spoke English and was knowledgeable. Wouldn't have missed this visit.
The church itself is a baroque wonder with inlaid marble, gilding, frescoes, and patterns everywhere. It is a beautiful example.
Written October 19, 2014
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Eleanor P
Southampton, UK11 contributions
Nov 2012 • Friends
They've removed a large number of the bones for 'cleaning', but have chosen to keep the tour of the lower church and museum open and charge you for it. You don't even get to keep the English tour sheet (tours are in Italian) for your 7 euros. Disappointing.
Written November 19, 2012
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Dear,
during the restoration works the bones were moved,cleaned and classified by anthropologists,because each restoration work needs scientific researches. After this researches each bone was put in the place where it belonged.Thanks to these restoration works the lower church was opened and the touristis can visit one of the most spectacular tour of Naples. The regular ticket costs 4€,whereas a reduced ticket costs 3€, so you pay 7€ for 2 tickets and not just for one.
English tour is available if you book it just one day before..Anyway recorded guides will be available very soon.
Written August 29, 2013
This response is the subjective opinion of the management representative and not of Tripadvisor LLC.
¿ Se pueden hacer fotos ?
Written October 30, 2020
How do you get downstairs? Is the entrance behind the altar or somewhere else?
Written November 13, 2015
Behind the information desk. You have to pay a ticket fee to get there. It is a guided tour. I think it only costs 5€. It is worth it!
The guide had a degree in history of art and the explanation he gave us was great. He made it in Italian which for Spanish people is easy to understand.
Written November 14, 2015
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