Old Hospital
It was founded in 1584 by the archpriest Filippo Pizzuto, as it is written on the lintel of the front door of the church, to accommodate patients and pilgrims, but also orphans and wet nurses. Soon after, it was entrusted to a confraternity, existing in 1597, when a document mentions as furnishings of the chapel a marble altar, two paintings (Madonna and Ecce Homo) and a Crocifisso.
In 1750, the gilded wooden altar hosted a large painting with the Holy Savior depicted in his new iconography: no longer the Ascension (as in the apsidal fresco of the medieval church), but the Transfiguration. Other paintings were visible on the walls: Madonna della Catena, Madonna visita poveri, Cristo portacroce, another unspecified Madonna, S. Michele Arcangelo.
The hospital is connected with the religious building, placed between two courtyards, where other spaces overlook (rooms, aisles, kitchens, pantries, workshops, warehouses). The complex was raised to isolate it from unhealthy low spaces, so much so that the church had a raised side entrance and where the main portal should have been opened, on the wall opposite to the main altar, it was set up and is still there, a balcony with slab and three beautiful brackets in sandstone.
The premises on the ground floor, reinforced in the XVIII century by inclined masonry that enhance the upper constructions, were used as prison for a long time.
In 1779, date shown on the lintel of the door giving on via Bellini, the building was greatly changed and the church was partially frescoed. After the unity of Italy and the suppression of religious orders, the site was abandoned and put up for auction, while the institute moved to the former convent of the Friars Minor Reformed of S. Maria di Gesù.