Before arriving in the hall of Ten wonders of the treasure of St. Januarius  – that it is possible to admire only in the museum- there is a silver and Mediterranean coral cross (1706). Jesus Christ is represented with rare beauty, we can see his spasm in the veins, in the pain, in the death. It has a priceless value because it is the only example not lost.

Popes, kings and queens did not expense spared to honour worthily the Saint. One hall in the Museum of the treasure of St. Januarius  shows the precious and important gifts of sovereigns. Going in the museum means to know some stories about each jewel and be impressed. Some examples: 

Going up through a small and intriguing staircase, the route of the museum arrives in a wonderful place: the Sacristies of the Chapel, the Chapel of the Immaculate, the Anti-sacristy and Luca Giordano’s sacristy which have been closed to the public for over four centuries but finally accessible.

The Chapel of the Immaculate has a typical baroque creativity, rich in fine marbles and stuccos. It has been frescoed from 1663 by Luca Giordano but he could not finish his work that was completed by Giacomo Farelli, one of his best pupils who put his own signature in the central image of the Immaculate Conception.

The cycle of frescoes unknots into a series of spaces outlined by one of the most extraordinary stucco’s decorations made in Naples in the seventeenth century. The ribs of the vaults are made of cherubs frontally placed, with their heads of bouffant and curly hair, rounded bodies, real masterpieces of the decorators Andrea Falcone and Giovan Battista d’Adamo. On the altar there is a painting on copper representing the Recovery of the Possessed Woman, made by Massimo Stanzione.

In the anti-sacristy stand out the frescoes of the vault made by the painters Francesco e Nicola Rossi in 1744. They use a typical technique like Neapolitan quadraturists. In this evocative anti-sacristy there is also a marble washbasin made by Francesco Valentino in 1615 that later has been enriched with a couple of dauphins drawn by the sculptor Dionisio Lazzari in 1668.  The paintings on the wall were made by the Apulian painter Vincenzo Fato in 1742 and represent The Hydropic, The Resurrection of Lazarus, The Blind born and The Cananite.

This Sacristy is completely covered with wood wardrobes drawn by Lazzari and made for the keeping of the Treasure and the liturgical apparatus. The decoration of the vault is rare and elegant in the white colour with stucco’s sinuous telamones  was made by Andrea Falcone in 1668 culminating in the middle of the sacristy’s ceiling with a fresco by Luca Giordano in 1668 representing San Januarius where it stands the rare signature of the author. Jordano F. [Jordano fecit].