Interior view

This church of the Neapolitan Poor Clares was founded in 1307 by Mary of Hungary, the wife of Charles II. Here the entrance lies beneath the even groin-vaults of the nuns' choir. The effect is to draw the observer forward through the dark but by no means heavily constructed forms of a low, vaulted hall towards a blaze of light. This light floods down into the expanding spaces of the wooden-roofed nave from the soaring windows of a sanctuary bay that leads to a five-sided apse. The contrast between the vertically accented forms of the windows and those of the low, preliminary vaulting is dramatic.

The photo shows the view towards apse.

View the ground plans of Santa Maria Donnaregina Vecchia, Naples.