San Pietro Martire (Naples)

San Pietro Martire (Italian: "St. Peter, the Martyr") is a church in Naples, Italy. It is located directly across from the principal building of the University of Naples on the main street, Corso Umberto, in the downtown area.

The church belongs to the first wave of construction under the Angevin dynasty in Naples, which includes better-known structures such as the Maschio Angioino. Construction on San Pietro Martire was started in 1294 under Charles II of Anjou to provide a facility for the Dominican Order; the church and adjacent monastery premises were finished by 1343. Between 1400 and 1500 the premises were expanded considerably to allow for a larger contingent of monks than the original dozen.As with most Angevin buildings in Naples, San Pietro Martire underwent considerable rebuilding when the Spanish took over the Kingdom of Naples in the early 1500s, including a remake of the monastic courtyard, which, then again, was redone in 1755 in the form that one sees today. The monastery was closed under the French rule of Murat in the early 1800s, reopened after the restoration of the Bourbon dynasty in 1816 and closed again by the new nation-state of modern Italy in 1864, leaving, however, the church open. The area around the premises underwent drastic remodelling in 1900 as part of a massive urban renewal of Naples, and both church and monastery were damaged by bombing in World War II due to their proximity to the port of Naples, a target of bombing raids. Restoration was completed in 1953 and the monastic grounds were converted to a tobacco processing facility. The entire premises, both church and monastery, were then taken over by the university of Naples. The monastery now houses lecture halls and the church is one of the university chapels.