Piazza San Gaetano

Piazza San Gaetano is framed by two church facades, and in its very center stands a low monument, as if its upper part were missing. Four angels stand at the corners of its marble base, while the metal figure of the saint was added later. An ancient column found near Naples Cathedral was to have been raised above them, but the owners of the neighboring palace and invited specialists considered it too dangerous for the house. The plan was abandoned, the column left the square, and behind the monument remained the church with the tomb of the saint who gave the square its name.

San Lorenzo Maggiore stands where the Greek agora and the Roman forum stood in antiquity. In the seventeenth century, civic affairs were still decided here. The Tribunal of San Lorenzo met in the monastery—the name given to the municipal administration. Elected representatives of the city’s estates allocated taxes, oversaw supplies, and made decisions on behalf of Naples.

Across from it was the tomb of Gaetano Thiene. He came to Naples to found a community of Theatines—priests who had renounced land, fixed income, and the accumulation of property. They lived on voluntary donations and income from their ministry. At first, Neapolitans regarded the new priests with suspicion, and there was barely enough money to support the community. Gaetano stayed. In fifteen thirty-eight, San Paolo Maggiore was handed over to the Theatines, and nine years later the founder of the order died in their house at the church and was buried here.

In the summer of sixteen fifty-six, a plague epidemic carried off about half the inhabitants of Naples. On August seventh, the feast day of Gaetano, who was still only blessed at the time, the city’s elected representatives came to his tomb barefoot, with cords around their necks—this was how participants in public penance showed that they were asking for mercy without demanding it by virtue of their office. The people responsible for supplies and order admitted that they could not stop the epidemic by their usual means. They promised to seek a place for Gaetano among the patrons of Naples if the plague receded.

In mid-August, the number of sick people and deaths began to decline. For contemporaries, this was Gaetano’s answer; a historian cannot prove a miracle. The city’s representatives sent a petition to Pope Alexander VII, and the Theatines decided to erect a monument before their church. Canonization had to wait until sixteen seventy-one, but work on the monument began as early as the year after the epidemic.

The architect Cosimo Fanzago made the marble base, and the sculptor Andrea Falcone carved four angels at its corners. Theatines thought this was not enough. They intended to raise a figure of Gaetano on a tall ancient column found during work near Naples Cathedral. The Pisani family, who owned the neighboring palace, objected: its owners feared that the heavy column would collapse onto their home. Invited architects and mathematicians supported them. The Theatines abandoned the lofty project, and the column intended for it left the square.

That is why a low monument, as if cut short, stands in the center of San Gaetano. Four marble angels remain from the first commission after the plague, while the metal figure of the saint was installed later. Behind it is San Paolo Maggiore, with Gaetano’s tomb; across from it is San Lorenzo, where the elected representatives who made the vow held their sessions. The name of the square fixed between them the name of the man to whom the municipal administration came when its own solutions were no longer enough.