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San Pietro a Majella is considered one of the most significant examples of Angevin architecture in Naples. It was built at the wishes of Giovanni Pippino da Barletta, one of the knights of Charles II of Anjou and the one responsible for destroying the last Saracen colony on the southern peninsula, in Lucera. It was built in the early 14th century and was named for and dedicated to Pietro Angeleri da Morone, a hermit monk from Majella (near Sulmona) who became Pope Celestine V in 1294.
The interior has three naves, separated by pillars supporting Gothic arches, with nine lateral chapels, plus four on each side of the chancel, and transept. The simple volume of the nave, with its telling interplay of plain arches and plane surfaces, is clearly demarcated. No less clear is its expansion into the richer darkness of the vaulted aisles and of the rectangular vaulted chapels beyond. The single detail that epitomizes the simple, balanced contrasts of the building and contains within itself the essence of the transition from the wall-dominated, planar spaces to the rib-dominated aisles is the fusion of columns and flat piers in the nave arcading.
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