Santa Maria Incoronatella Church
at
Via Medina, 19
The church was built in the 14th century as part of urban project around the Castel Nuovo, the royal palace of Charles II of Anjou. The church was founded in 1364, not as tradition holds, in memory of the coronation of Joanna I of Naples and her second marriage to Louis, Prince of Taranto, but to hold a precious relic, a spine from the thorny crown of Christ, which the queen had requested from Charles V of France, and whose portrait is kept in the entrance. The edification of the Palace chapel or cappella palatina outside of the Castle, was completed in a difficult moment for the Queen, after the death of her husband in 1362.