Duomo

It may not look much from the outside but this one is definitely hiding its lights. Naples' cathedral dates back to the 4th century so it's only fitting that the remains of its patron saint, San Gennaro, are kept here and that, three times a year, the city comes together to witness a miracle upon which Neapolitans believe that the fortune of the city rests: the liquification of a vial of San Gennaro's blood, now held in the Museo del Tesoro. The story goes that when San Gennaro was beheaded back in 305, his blood was taken to the catacombs of San Gennaro where, 100 years later, it mysteriously liquified. It is said that the blood now liquifies three times a year (including on San Gennaro's feast day of September 19) and on the rare occasions when it doesn't, disaster befalls the city: such as in 1980 when an earthquake hit Naples.

Apart from the dramatic happenings, the Duomo is noted for its magnificent gilt ceiling, paintings by Luca Giordano, a marvellous bronze gate, beautiful frescoes by Domenichino (before his early demise, possibly from poisoning by the wildly ambitiious Ribera, who painted the alterpiece, The Martydom of San Gennaro), as well as the oldest building of its kind in the west - the 4th-century baptistry.