Schiara - a magnificent Neapolitan terrace

In the heart of the Neapolitan historical center rises Schiara .

The importance of the ancient Monumental Complex of Santa Chiara, which gives its name to the maison de charme, can almost be touched and brightens the terraces with its yellow tuff stonework.

But Schiara is also the realization of the hopeful, Neapolitan wish addà schiarà, or things will get better, which gives courage in dark times.



Its five rooms, MITI, RITI, VOTI, FEDI and CUNTI are rooms of an ancient and impassioned culture: they propose a journey within a journey, in pursuit of the mythology Naples lives and thrives on, of the superstition of rituals and amulets it defends itself with, the gratitude expressed in ex-voto promises, or the devotion displayed through 500 domes, 52 patrons and 2000 votive aedicules, and the fascination exercised by tales rooted in distant times.



MITI

Naples has been living and nourishing itself in myth, for over three thousand years.

The origins linked to Partenope, the exploits of Virgil the magician, the dives of the fish-man, the ferocious crocodile of the Maschio Angioino... these myths represent a large part of the fascination that the city exercises on people all over the world.

The room charms through the myths it evokes and since the most famous myth honours the very birth of Naples and has as its protagonist the mermaid Partenope...a bath in which to submerge could not be omitted.

Suitable for people in intimacy.



RITI

Magic, and superstition have been intertwined in the Neapolitan culture since ancient times.

They have their roots in the miseries and misfortunes that hit the city of Naples.

To be superstitious is ignorant, but not to be is bad luck, said the great Eduardo De Filippo.

One of the symbols of this city, Totò, interpreted the “jettatore”: the unfortunate owner of bad luck.

To counteract bad luck, various superstitious rites and amulets have been developed: from the horn to the horseshoe, from the hunchback to the garlic crown…



VOTI

Symbols of a popular tradition that mixes the sacred and the profane, unconsciously carrying forward an ancient way of interfacing with divinity, the ex voto is a thank you for a good received, a symbol of a debt of gratitude and together the repayment of that debt.

A large part of ex-votos is linked to recovery from an illnesses. In view of these healings, as if to express by grace received, there was, and still is the tradition of offering an object, usually silver, depicting the part of the body healed as an ex-voto.

So many objects can be found in the shape of hands, feet, busts, eyes ...



FEDI

In the city of 500 church domes, 52 patrons, 2000 votive shrines, this room expresses one aspect of the culture of the Neapolitan people: devotion.

The furnishing elements of the room draw on that naively popular iconography of images that, in the oldest South, have always brightened up the darkest corners of old crowded alleys, or the hidden and forgotten recesses of immense and labyrinthine houses creating a magical atmosphere, suggestive, and dreamy….



CUNTI

Naples has a myriad of stories to tell.

They start from distant times and span to the present day, a path beaten by great writers and scholars, such as Matilde Serao, Benedetto Croce, Eduardo de Filippo and many other illustrious Neapolitans who have told them.

The room evokes them, among the pages of books suspended on the walls, and luminous books placed on the tables,

The veiled image of the modesty of the Sansevero chapel recalls the “Bella ‘Mbriana” and the gecko, images through which She silently inhabits the walls.

Small niches, lit by the flickering light of nativity flames, welcome souls from purgatory to which are linked a myriad stories….