Called "Spaccanapoli" because it splits (spacca) the old city in two.
We start from Piazza del Gesù Nuovo, so named after the Baroque Jesuit church erected in the area of the Renaissance Palazzo Sanseverino, which has its original diamond-pointed rusticated façade; the reference point in the area is the Baroque guglia dell'Immacolata, erected between 1747 and 1750 with funds from public subscription.
From here we walk along via Benedetto Croce with its monumental noble palaces, one of which is Palazzo Filomarino where the philosopher Benedetto Croce lived and died.
The street widens into Piazza San Domenico Maggiore dominated by the polygonal apse of the church of the same name, the Gothic portal of Sant'Angelo a Morfisa and, on the other three sides, the important noble palazzi of Petrucci, Casacalenda, Sangro di Sansevero and Corigliano. At the centre of the piazza the impressive guglia by C. Fanzago and D.A. Vaccaro stands, which was erected to release the people from the vow made during the 1656 plague. A visit to the Sansevero Chapel is not to be missed; this houses the Veiled Christ, a celebrated masterpiece by the Neapolitan sculptor Giuseppe Sanmartino.
Along via San Biagio dei Librai which gets its name from the time the street was lined with bookshops, and now with goldsmiths' shops, there are some Renaissance palaces of note: the Palazzo del Monte di Pietà with its annexed Chapel, Marigliano and Carafa Santangelo.
In via Duomo, notice the Church of S. Giorgio Maggiore, built between the end of the fourth and the beginning of the fifth century, but then restructured by Cosimo Fanzago in the 17th century.
Going up the street, it reaches the Cathedral with the Chapel of the Treasure of St. Gennaro and the Museum dedicated to the latter. A visit to the Diocesan Museum, hosted in the omonym Church, is possible in the neighbouring Piazza Donna.