Church of Sant'Anna dei Lombardi

The church of Sant'Anna dei Lombardi is a monumental church in Naples located in Piazza Monteoliveto. The works inside by Giuliano and Benedetto da Maiano, Antonio Rossellino and Giorgio Vasari make the church one of the most important examples of the Tuscan Renaissance in Naples. The church was founded in 1411 by Gurello Origlia, prothonotary of King Ladislaus of Durazzo, who sponsored the construction of a small church called Santa Maria di Monteoliveto, entrusted to the Olivetan fathers. The building was radically enlarged by Alfonso I of Naples and soon became a favourite of the Aragonese court. The church bears witness to the close ties between the city and Tuscany, demonstrating that even at that time a dense Florentine "colony" of merchants, artisans and bankers had settled in Naples. It is no coincidence that the negotiations between Antonio Piccolomini and the sculptors Antonio Rossellino and Benedetto da Maiano on the construction and decoration of the chapel of the same name in the church were carried out by the Strozzi family, who had a branch of their bank in Naples through which they made payments to the artists.The Church of Sant'Anna dei Lombardi has a typically Florentine plan, along which five side chapels are aligned, plus another three in the presbytery. In the 17th century the church was rebuilt by Gaetano Sacco, while in 1798 Ferdinand I of the Two Sicilies ordered the removal of the Olivetans. So the archconfraternity of Lombardi, at the time in another church that had recently become unfit for use because of the collapse of the ceiling, dedicated to St. Anne and located nearby, in the street of the same name between the Ventapane palace and the Carafa di Maddaloni palace, took the opportunity to move to the church of Monteoliveto, which then changed its name in 1801, taking the name of St. Anne of Lombardi.