Santi Pietro e Paolo dei Greci

History

The initial structure was dedicated to the Twelve Apostles. The church was built in 1518 at the behest of the Knight Thomas Asen Palaiologos, a descendant of the last Byzantine imperial dynasty. The church officiated the liturgy for exiled populations of Epirus and the Morea. The institution followed the Byzantine Rite. After the Battle of Lepanto in 1571, the church served one of the largest Greek communities on Italian soil.

Thomas Asen Palaiologos sponsored the building of the church, and he also founded a chapel within the Roman Catholic church of San Giovanni Maggiore, Naples. In 1544, the Church of the Twelve Apostles was dedicated to the Greek Orthodox faith and the Byzantine Rite. By 1617, there was not enough room for the parishioners.

The famous Greek painter Belisario Corenzio was a member of the church confraternity and painted frescoes for it. During Corenzio's time, an academy for Greek girls was added to the church. In 1634, the church was re-dedicated to Saints Peter and Paul. According to the Neapolitan historian Vincenzo Meola, Corenzio had the merit of transferring the church from its "native obscurity to its nobility". Famous Italian painter Paolo de Matteis also completed some work for the church.

Towards the end of the 18th century, another famous Greek painter, Efstathios Karousos, completed more artwork for the church. He painted different themes that brought fusions of the Heptanese School and Neopolitan painting. Thirty-eight of his works have survived in the church.

During the period from 1656 to 1721, the Greek Church and Confraternity engaged in a hard struggle to preserve their unique identity and the Greek character of the institution and the Eastern dogma. During the early 19th century the church was forbidden from following the Greek Orthodox rituals or the Greek Rite. Greek Catholic priests were instituted.

For half a century the church was not permitted to follow the Greek rite and Greek Orthodox rituals. By May 1866, the court of Naples returned the Church to the Orthodox Greeks and the Byzantine Rite. Archimandrite N. Katramis worked hard to restore the ancient status. By the end of the 19th century the church became the property of the Greek state and the Greek Orthodox Church.

In October 2007, the church received the visit of the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople Bartholomew.