S. Joseph’s Sanctuary in S. Giuseppe Vesuviano
and
Neapolitan architecture between permanence and
innovation at the early 20th century
The rebuilding as a monumental sanctuary of the smaller ancient parish of S. Joseph in S. Giuseppe
Vesuviano provides a meaningful cross section of the Eclectic time, when the completion or renewal of main
historical churches often became the occasion for wide redevelopments of towns, frequently also related
to the achievement of the administrative autonomy. This architecture (1896-1926) is a quintessential late-Eclectic example to which contributed architects, artists and artisans of diverse culture, some of which, as
Guglielmo Raimondi, even involved in important restorations and historic preservation issues. It was both
a religious endeavour and a monumental civic one , financed by people all over the world as a symbol also of the new autonomous urban reality. The Sanctuary was in fact a part of a wider building undertaking by
the priest Giuseppe Ambrosio, comprising charity and social structures that provided a new ‘urban’ face
contributing to the ‘modernization’ of the rural environment.
