San Lorenzo Maggiore (Naples)

San Lorenzo Maggiore is a church and former monastery in Naples, Italy. It is located geographically in the very center of the ancient Greco-Roman city, on the corner of Via San Gregorio Armeno and via dei Tribunali. The name " San Lorenzo " also bear the in the buildings of the monastery newly opened museum and the archaeological ruins of a Greco-Roman market under the church.

The origin of the church of the Franciscan Order put even during the lifetime of St. Francis of Assisi. The site of the present church was the Order provided as compensation for the expropriation of the site of the former church of the Order of Charles I of Anjou, who built his new fortress, the Castel Nuovo there.

The newly opened museum occupies three floors around a courtyard and explained the history of the area around San Lorenzo from classical antiquity to the modern era. Below San Lorenzo of the ancient Roman market town of Neapolis was excavated with numerous rooms. These are the only major excavations of the Greco- Roman past Naples in the city and can be visited.

Two of the chapels in the Gothic church was later remodeled by Cosimo Fanzago in Baroque style with numerous inlays and colored marble. In the nave are magnificent floor mosaics of the 6th century from the church of St. Lawrence, an early Christian predecessor obtained.