The complex of San Pietro a Maiella, at n. 4 of the homonymous street, has been one of the most important Italian music conservatories since 1826, whose beautiful courtyard is worth a visit. The church was dedicated by the noble founder Pipino di Barletta to Pietro da Morrone, the hermit friar of the Maiella, who ascended to the pontificate in 1294 with the name of Celestine V. A restoration started in 1888 and finished in 1927 has restored the original Gothic forms, altered by interventions carried out in the centuries following the foundation of the complex, bringing to light fourteenth-century frescoes in two chapels in the presbyterial area. The elimination of the baroque decorations has left intact the splendid gilded wooden ceiling in which the paintings by Mattia Preti, one of the greatest expressions of seventeenth-century Neapolitan painting, are embedded.
