Rione of the Sanità

Rione Sanità (literally "Health Alley" in Italian) is a neighbourhood in Naples, part of the Stella quarter. It is located north of Naples' historical centre, adjacent to the Capodimonte hill.

What is now Rione Sanità was a burial place in Roman and Hellenistic times, as witnessed by the discovery of Hellenistic hypogea and Paleochristian catacombs. The area was settled in the late 16th Century. Some local traditions and places, such as the rite of the Pezzentelle (see below), witness a cultural attitude towards death that may be related to the area's original use.

While the settlement in Rione Sanità was originally established as a home for noble and rich families of Naples' aristochracy (as witnessed by palazzi such as Palazzo Sanfelice and Palazzo dello Spagnolo), the area eventually turned into one of the most infamous and degraded of Naples. Unemployment, poverty, and the widespread presence of Camorra have long characterized the quarter. The dramatic situation of the area has attracted volunteer and humanitarian efforts, such as those of the Comboni Missionaries that have been operating for years in support of Rione Sanità's population.

One of most peculiar traits of Rione della Sanità is a unique cult and ritual that takes place in the ossuary of the Fontanelle cemetery. The cult dates back to the 17th Century and involves the ritual burning of candles dedicated to the so-called "pezzentelle" ("little wretches"), i.e., the soul of the "nameless dead" whose bones are preserved in the ossuary. More specifically, Neapolitan families traditionally "choose" one specific skull from the ossuary and take care of it (cleaning it up, repositioning it properly in the ossuary, and so on), with the intent that the "adopted" nameless soul will repay those attentions with good luck and blessings. While the cult has a general Christian-Catholic frame (as the "pezzentelle" are usually identified as Purgatory souls), many of its elements are rather pagan in nature, so that it can be classified as a syncretic cult.

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