Completed in 1324 on the orders of Charles I of Anjou, this was the royal church of the Angevins. Of the few 14th-century remnants surviving the church's countless revamps, the frescoes by Pietro Cavallini in the Cappella Brancaccio take the cake. The sacristy is also noteworthy, featuring a beautiful ceiling fresco by Francesco Solimena and 45 coffins of Aragon princes and other nobles.
In the Cappellone del Crocifisso, the 13th-century Crocifisso tra La Vergine e San Giovanni is said to have spoken to St Thomas Aquinas, asking him: 'Bene scripsisti di me, Thoma; quam recipies a me pro tu labore mercedem ?' (You've written good things about me, Thomas; what will you get in return?) – 'Domine, non aliam nisi te ' (Nothing if not you, O Lord), Thomas replied diplomatically. The first bishop of New York, Richard Luke Concanen (1747–1810), is also buried here.
