THE HISTORY OF THE MONASTERY

CONSTRUCTION

	BIRTH DESTRUCTION REBUILDING		The flood of people coming to revere the Virgin of the Mountains continued to grow and in 1621 the municipality of Naples built a stepped, basalt road up to the site. A bigger church, however, was needed. On the 29th of December ,1672, the planning of a new building was entrusted to a certain architect, Frà Giuseppe, a Dominican of the 'Sanità', the work to be done by a Giuseppe Russo. On the 22nd of January, 1628, Cardinal Francesco Buoncompagno, accompanied by the Cathedral Chapter, layed the foundation stone of the new church with great solemnity and in accordance with the drawings of Frà Giuseppe. However, construction proceded very slowly, first because of an eruption of Vesuvius on the 16th of December, 1631, and then because of the illness and subsequent death of Father Caraffa on the 8th of September, 1633. Since the work was so unsatisfactory, on the 8th of January,1643, P. G. Tommaso Carmignano commissioned Cavalier Cosimo Fanzago to draw up new plans and finish the job. The work was indeed finished, but in a rather rough fashion, in the year 1654.