Basilica di San Francesco di Paola
Grand pantheon-style church with a curving colonnade, facing a piazza famed for a blindfold wager.
Location
About this audio guide
This guide to the Basilica di San Francesco di Paola in Naples opens with a wager: can you walk blindfolded across the piazza and land squarely between the two bronze horsemen out front? It traces the legend of Queen Margherita offering freedom to prisoners who could complete that same walk, and the doubts historians have about whether it ever really happened. You'll hear how Ferdinand I commissioned this Pantheon-modeled church and its curving colonnade after reclaiming his throne, and how sculptor Antonio Canova's bronze riders were originally meant to depict Napoleon before history changed sides. Pick your two horses, close your eyes, and see how far Naples sends you off course.
This audio guide was created using AI.
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